Film reviews

‘The Time Travelers Wife’

Another in a long series of recent adaptions of popular novels, Audrey Niffeneggers the Time Travelers Wife was never going to be an easy book to bring to the big screen!

Eric Bana plays a lonely librarian worker inflicted with a rare genetic disorder which causes him to travel uncontrollably through time in moments of heightened emotion. As you can imagine, trying to hold down any form of relationship has its problems, but as always, love conquers all in the form of Rachael McAdams as the eponymous wife.

The book was a wonderful read, both emotionally charged and incredibly rich. Unfortunately the truncated 107 minute running time contributes somewhat to the film loosing much of the written stories appeal with ghost screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin deciding to take an admirably straight path with things.

Time travelling storylines have always been problematic in the sense that with so many variants of logic, plot is bound to suffer. I don’t have a problem with never going into detail on the how’s and why’s to find out the root cause of the ‘disorder’ but at times it often feels like your willing the characters to spot the obvious. And no good reason is ever given for Henry’s inability to warn his mother of her impending death from the opening scene.

The first half of the film seems overly simplistic to some degree, thanks mainly to what feels like a laboured script, once again wrapping a supernatural sci-fi in the warm blanket of a love story. ‘The Lake house’, ‘PS I Love You’, ‘The Notebook and more recently Benjamin Button have all walked down a familiar path but what saves this from becoming just another star crossed lovers tale is the spot on casting of Eric Bana as Henry and Rachael McAdams as his suffering wife Clare.

McAdams is unfeasibly stunning; you can’t help but be drawn in by her beauty, and although Bana is probably the more suited of the two, they both work very well together in their respective roles. The connection between them is clearly visible, the loving stares and tearful embraces go a long way to helping with the audience connection.

At times it can feel like a behind the scenes look at Superman’s home life and the score is more than a little distracting. But despite the flawed logic this is a solid watch that more than pays off in the third act. A convoluted film of maddening paradoxes it may be, but give in to the silliness of it all and you’ll be more than rewarded by its ironic and bittersweet ending!

** (Maybe a very average 3)