The Time Traveler's Wife

Director: Robert Schwentke
Writer: Jeremy Levin, Bruce Joel Rubin, Audrey Niffeneger (author)
Starring: Eric Bana, Rachel Mcadams
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

It is a very hard job to be the wife of traveler, but a harder job is turning a 500-page bestselling novel into a film. You might be a bit puzzled, but try and stay with me here. Henry(Eric Bana) met his wife Clare(Rachel Mcadams) when he was 20 years old. Clare met Henry when she was six years old. Henry suffers from a genetic disorder that causes him to inadvertently time travel. When Henry time travels, he travels to events that represent importance in his life – to not just his own memories, but Claire’s also. He’s also always naked when he travels because he can only take himself with him. Still with me? The film opens when Henry is a little boy in the car with his mother, just before her death. Then it shows a much older Henry traveling to the scene trying to prevent what is about to happen. After the horrific accident, the older, traveling Henry helps out his younger self by comforting him, while the younger version of him is crying. First off, it is very hard to translate such a complex novel to the big screen, so I tip my hat off to director Robert Schwentke and the screenwriters for trying. The novel, written by Audrey Niffeneger, was something you couldn’t just flip through. The reader had to take time to read it, not because it was long, but because it was a book that deserved to be fully enjoyed. So to try to make it into a two hour movie was definitely pushing it. Overlooking the clichéd writing, filmmakers didn’t do a very good job of capturing this eternal love story.That being said, it’s a very hard thing to do, but….not impossible if you look at past romance films. This is hard to put into words, but I’ll give it a try. In my opinion, both Eric Bana and Rachel Mcadams are very good actors. I also think the two share a great chemistry together. But, I didn’t believe that they were that in love with each other. I especially didn’t buy that Claire had been in love with Henry since she was six. They just seemed to me like a regular married couple. There was nothing about their romance that I found compelling. Again, I enjoy both their acting, but it was hard for me to accept . Watching the film didn’t confuse me, but other people who haven’t read the book might be very baffled, unfortunately. The Time Traveler’s Wife – no matter how great - wasn’t the type of book to be made into a film, as not many are, but especially this one. The film did not ruin my perception of the novel, as many films like My Sister’s Keeper have. The adaption was faithful to the book, and didn’t change much. The Time Traveler’s Wife was a disappointment, but could have been a lot worse.