The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

Excellent but underrated film

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I have seen this Film several times !! If i could go back in time, besides for the lotto numbers and Sports Scores, I would Love to have been at the filming of the Court Room scenes from "A Few Good Men". Also, Rachel McAdams is a Great Kisser !

I was eager to buy into the exciting premise that Henry (Eric Bana) is spontaneously traveling to random points in time as I was relishing the boundless possibilities of how time lines can be affected and anticipation of an intricate plot. However, the movie disappointingly left this plot driving potential unrealized largely due to the utterly fatalistic philosophical stance of the author. The potential was boringly killed at the outset when Henry stated that he tried to put his time travel to use but could not alter the events. This relegated him for the rest of the movie to the role of a helpless toy in the hands of these nuisance time leaps. The character without any goal or purpose was hard to relate to or feel for. We saw a series of peculiar oddities (vanishing in thin air) and awkward situations (nude guy trying to find clothes), but we did not witness any real struggle or purpose-driven actions, no effort of the time traveler to use his gift to make a difference. For the lack of the driver, the rest of the plot amounted to a unconvincing retelling of a soap-opera-worthy romantic story. It would have been far more interesting to see Henry try to at least save his mother, rather than boringly stating that he couldn't. He could at least try to tell Clare (Rachel McAdams) while she was a girl and his mom was still alive to call his mom and warn her about the storm and tell her not to drive on that fateful evening. He could have called his mom while in the past. He could have actually told it to her face when he met her on the train three years before the accident. Would she have believed him? Would she have still died despite the prior knowledge – that could have been a thrilling possibility! The movie left me with a sense of unfulfilled promise, wasted potential and disappointment with the passive, fatalistic outlook that this movie projects.

I was rather looking forward to this because time travel is so full of conundrums and paradoxes. The concept can be played with and variously shaped.This one takes a shape too, but it's a variation on an all too familiar theme. A beautiful young couple fall hopelessly in love and then it develops that the tall, handsome man has something wrong with him and it interferes with their happiness. There's something he's keeping secret from her, something he may not even be able to control. Does he have a secret identity -- a CIA agent or a Mafia hit man? Nope. Is it another woman? Uh-uh. Is it a disease? Well -- yes and no.Eric Bana, the hunky time traveler doesn't know whether he's coming or going, and when he's gone, nobody knows where to. I'll tell you, it's a great big nuisance. How would YOU like it if, on your wedding night, you were lying on the bed laughing while your newly minted husband is jumping on the mattress for pure joy and then suddenly, POOF, and there's nothing there but a rumpled tuxedo? Talk about your major disappointment! It's all pretty generic. It has Bana tripping through time, often at awkward moments, and meeting cute little Rachel McAdams, first at the age of about six and then, on and off, until they're both in their twenties.There's only so much the script can do with Bana's peregrinations so another difficulty is introduced at about the halfway point. He has a "genetic anomaly" that's not only responsible for his travels (apparently, the explanation is murky) but also makes it impossible for McAdams to have her cherished baby with his genes."Groundhog Day" dealt with the opposite problem. Bill Murray was stuck in one single day, living it over and over. And a romance provided the spine for that story too. But "Groundhog Day" was a success, a hilarious comedy built around a credible romance.In contrast, "The Time Traveler's Wife" is a soap opera with a lemon twist. No kidding. At one point, Bana manages to be absent for two weeks and she chides him for missing both Christmas and New Years. Then she gathers her gear and begins to stalk off to work. "Wait!", calls Bana, "We have to talk!" We have to talk. That's a woman's line. No man, in the history of full-blooded manliness, has ever uttered those words. Try to imagine John Wayne saying they have to talk, perhaps going deeper into introspection. "We have to talk. I feel -- kind of -- all empty inside when you're -- not with me. Are we drifting apart?"The tall, handsome, soft spoken, clearly heterosexual Eric Bana is every woman's dream mate -- except for one thing. He can't bring money with him from wherever he's been before. McAdams' family is rich, judging from the very formal wedding ceremony and its accouterments. It had a band and everyone was in evening clothes. I went through a wedding too, but it was under a plastic arch festooned with plastic flowers and cob webs.She's rich, but he's poor. The dream mate must be rich, if he's not going to be a poor genius. The movie solves this by having Bana memorize a winning lottery number and winning five million bucks. Problem solved, except for that nettlesome business about the miscarriages.I didn't really watch it until the end because I did some time traveling myself and saw her beaming over the cooing baby she held in her arms. Whether Bana was still there or not, I couldn't tell. The vision, like the movie, was turgid.

I was a huge fan of the book and while the movie didn't translate quite as well as I had hoped, ultimately I did enjoy it. I liked the casting with Eric Bana as Henry, a librarian with a rare genetic disorder that causes him to live his life on a shifting timeline, skipping back and forth through his lifespan without control. Rachel McAdams was also perfect as his lady love Claire, who has been in love with (and seeing) Henry her entire life.Even knowing the story I did find this confusing at times, trying to figure out "when" Henry was supposed to be. I think they could have solved this by altering his appearance a bit more than just adding a few strands of (unnoticeable) grey) hair. It also came across that his biggest problem with time jumping was finding clothes, as he was continually getting dressed or looking for clothes.The romance aspect was pretty good, decent chemistry, suitably poignant. I definitely felt sorry for Clare trying to build a life with a guy that disappears without warning all the time... hmmm actually that sounds familiar.Anyways an interesting idea for a romance that will appeal to those who like the time travel stories and a little heartbreak but probably not fans of the book. 10/25/15