Search - The Time Traveler's Wife on DVD

Brittany C. from COLORADO SPGS, CO
Reviewed on 6/14/2013...

Good movie, emotional

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Carl K. (Carl) from SANTA CLARA, CA
Reviewed on 6/2/2013...

We really enjoyed this movie. It has taken its place on the shelf as a movie we'd like to watch over and over. Both Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana turn in wonderful performances, and the combination of sci-fi and romantic "chick flick" is a winner. The wife and I definitely recommend this one...

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Nikki B. from NORTH HILLS, CA
Reviewed on 3/19/2013...

It's one of those movies you watch with your girlfriends over and over.

Dhana G.
Reviewed on 8/15/2011...

This is one of my favorite movies! I love it!

Lewis P. (Turfseer) from NEW YORK, NY
Reviewed on 10/24/2010...

Soap opera masquerades as science fiction

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

While the concept of 'The Time Traveler's Wife' appears pretty clever, the actual execution proves quite inept. Eric Bana is Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian, who has some kind of genetic mutation which causes him to skip around in time. The twist is that every time he jumps in time, he loses his clothes. You might think that the image of the naked Henry scrambling around for new duds as he appears in different eras might have the potential for some neat comic possibilities—but humorless director Robert Schwentke opts for a completely heavy-handed, serious approach.

The way the time traveling works is that Henry is apparently drawn back to the significant events of his life. Chief among them is a car accident in which 6 year old Henry survives but his mother is killed. Henry still gets the opportunity to see his mother prior to her death as he time jumps into a pre-accident encounter on a train. Later, he visits his father who is now an alcoholic as he never got over his wife's death. The father knows about Henry's time traveling and berates him for not being able to prevent his mother's death. Henry states that he's been to the scene of the accident numerous times and despite his efforts, is never able to alter the events of what occurs (it's interesting that there are no scenes in which Henry does try and prevent his mother from being killed). Nonetheless, despite claiming that he's unable to change history, midway through the story, Henry jumps into the future where he buys a lottery ticket, providing a five million dollar windfall for he and his wife, and guaranteeing the family's financial security for the rest of their lives.

One of the givens in this movie is to accept the absurd premise of a genetic mutation that can cause time travel. Since the story is a fantasy, it's a perfectly acceptable conceit. But even within the fantasy concept there has to be some kind of internal logic. It's posited that Henry has no control over his time-traveling forays. He supposedly never knows when he'll be leaving or returning to a particular place and point in time. What's more it's not one Henry who is traveling—there appear to be numerous incarnations of Henry (at different points in his life) who pop up all over the place. So how is it, that these different Henry's conveniently know when to pop back up a critical dramatic moment despite the fact that they supposedly have no control over their time hopping abilities? I'm thinking particularly about the wedding scene where the younger Henry disappears right before he's supposed to get hitched and then is replaced by the older, gray-haired Henry at the altar.

In reading various postings on the internet regarding 'The Time Traveler's Wife', a fair number of people are disturbed by the scenes in which Henry visits his future wife, Clare, as a child. To them, the scenes are unsavory as there is perhaps an unhealthy relationship between a child and a grown man suggested. For me, there are no suggestions of an underlying sexual relationship between the characters. Fortunately, the filmmakers did not deal with the problem of the time traveling daughter—wouldn't she have also lost her clothes when hopping around in time? Now that would have been truly disturbing and I can see why the issue was not dealt with at all—despite adding to the entire implausibility of the plot.

Speaking of the plot, there is little tension as the story moves along. Part of the problem is that Henry is such a non-heroic sort of character. One wonders how he can hold a job as a librarian with all his time hopping. And then we see that he's not very industrious at all when he takes the easy way out and purchases the lottery ticket (Clare also comes off badly as she goes against her gut instincts and agrees to keep the ticket and cash it in). Henry never develops as a character and we find out little about him. He's too busy losing his clothes and disappearing all the time. There's a bit of tension when Henry's best friend tells Clare not to marry him but then he disappears until the end of the movie. Also completely underdeveloped is Dr. Kendrick who potentially could have developed some kind of cure for Henry's predicament but never does.

The central moment of the story occurs when Henry decides to get a vasectomy because he fears that his child might end up with the same genetic abnormality. Clare outwits him by having sex with a pre-vasectomy Henry and gives birth to Alba, who of course also is a time traveler. The dark moment occurs when Henry is shot by Clare's Republican hunter father who mistakes him for a deer out in the woods. But since there are still time hopping Henry's out there, he pays a visit to Clare and Alba after he dies and makes them feel better.

The Time Traveler's Wife does have an intriguing premise and holds your interest to the end. Ultimately however, we don't care about these characters precisely because they are not fleshed out as real people. It's a film that failed at the box office as both critics and the public agreed that the fantasy plot had too many implausibilities and none of the characters proved at all compelling. No amount of crocodile tears and whining by the Time Traveler's Wife that her husband never spends enough time at home, can save this flick from devolving into what it is: a predictable soap opera.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

James B. (wandersoul73) from LINDALE, TX
Reviewed on 3/31/2010...

Although, I thoroughly enjoyed this timed love tale it's still so farfetched, given the fact that sometimes he time travels every few minutes, but then he's somewhere hanging out for hours on end, lol. But overall it's very heartfelt.

0 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Heartfelt, Touching Adaptation of The Best-Selling Novel

Terence Allen | Atlanta, GA USA | 09/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Time Traveler's Wife," based on the best-seller novel by Audrey Niffenegger, is a beautifully realized, poignant romance that makes the viewer thing a lot about love, time, space, devotion, and many other lofty topics.

Eric Bana plays, Henry, a librarian who has a genetic disorder that causes him to randomly travel in time without any notice. He arrives and returns from his travels naked, and has no control over when he leaves and returns. His travels find him at various ages, reliving events like the death of his opera-singer mother in a car accident, or experiencing events for the first time, like getting to know a young girl name Clair. When he is in his late twenties, Clair, who is exactly twenty(played by Rachel McAdams),finds him. At this point, he doesn't know her, but she has known him since she was a little girl.

The rest of film details a relationship fraught with the unknown. Henry leaves and returns without any warning, takes a few close friend into his confidence regarding his secret, struggles to maintain a romance, then a marriage with Clair, and struggles to start a family and remain hopeful, knowing that the future is uncertain and likely to remain unstable.

Bana and McAdams are wonderful in the roles of Henry and Clair. This movie wouldn't work at all unless the characters were perfectly played, had chemistry, and were able to make you focus on the struggle of their relationship rather than the fantasy element of their problem. But the skill of the story is that time traveler ends up being such a perfect metaphor for the uncertainty and difficulties of romantic relationships.

This movie is wonderfully moving in ways that have to be experienced rather than described."

'Knowing about the future isn't always that great.'

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/12/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is a diversion. At times what works well in a novel doesn't translate to the screen: the magic of the reader's imagination can be more powerful than the visualization of a screenwriter and director. Such is the case of Audrey Niffenegger's novel - an escape into a world of the unknown (time traveling) that played well on the page largely due to the writing skill of the author. Bruce Joel Rubin's screenplay makes a mighty attempt to make visual the imaginary magic of the novel and thanks to CGI it pulls off the rather strange effects of appearing and disappearing of a time traveler. Robert Schwentke directs with a hefty dose of saccharine though, making what could have been a delicate story somewhat lugubrious.

Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) has the genetic code that allows him to travel backward and forward in time - a trait that requires a certain degree of acceptance on the part of the audience. We see Henry as a child, as a young man who meets a girl who will on a different 'trip' be a woman Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams), and witness a bizarre courtship between a couple whose match seems made in heaven.... Along the way Clare's friends (Jane McLean as Charisse and Ron Livingston as a vastly different Gomez than in the novel) figure into the quasi-normal relationship/marriage that takes place. The tale can be confusing if the viewer is not willing to enter the realm of 'possible' and the main guide of the film seems to focus on the fact that whenever Henry time travels, he ends up in his new destination naked (there are many scenes of Eric Bana just searching for clothes). Of course the film can't have a logical ending, but the ending selected, corny though it is, fits the story. Lots of sugar to swallow here, but if you're in a Valentine mood it is a pleasant diversion. Grady Harp, February 10"