Time Traveler's Wife, The (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Didn't we just see this movie a few years back? Only then the title was "The Lake House," and it starred Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Or was it the old Christopher Reeve movie, "Somewhere in Time"? Heck, maybe I'm thinking of Malcolm McDowell in "Time After Time" or Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman in "Kate & Leopold" or Rod Taylor in "The Time Machine," or even Brad Pitt (who co-produced the present film) in "Benjamin Button." Who knows. Writers love to play with time.

The nice thing about 2009's "The Time Traveler's Wife" is that at least the title tells you almost everything you need to know about the film. Directed by Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") and based on the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger, the movie is a fantasy-romance about a woman whose husband keeps flying off through time. Inconvenient at best, I'd say.

Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) is the husband involved. He explains that he has a rare genetic disease that causes him spontaneously and unwillingly to disappear and travel around through time. He says he doesn't know where or when he'll end up, except that he's always naked on the other side because he can't take his clothes with him. This necessitates that he steal money and apparel wherever he winds up. And he can't change anything that's already happened. He also seems confused about how to deal with his condition. At one point he's working as a penniless library clerk and living in a hovel; the next minute he's showing Claire how to win a million-dollar lottery, and they're living in a mansion. Sometimes he remembers who and what he is when he time travels; sometimes he doesn't. Conveniently, however, he always seems able to return to exactly where he started, usually anywhere from a few days to a few weeks later.

Claire Abshire (Rachel McAdams) is the wife involved. The film wants us to accept her as a patient, loving, understanding spouse, willing to put up with her husband's erratic comings and goings. The problem is that one minute she's exactly that--patient and loving and understanding--and the next minute she's irrational and unreasonable. She knows what she's getting into when she marries the guy, yet she often gets angry or annoyed when he flies off to some other time zone. This is akin to marrying a person with a known heart disease and then getting angry when the person has a heart attack. How fair is that? Afterwards, Henry explains to Claire that they should not have children because he's afraid of passing on his condition to an offspring, which not only sets her into a tizzy fit but prompts her to trick Henry into having a kid, anyway. So much for patient and loving and forget about understanding.

Maybe the author meant the story as a dark comedy. When Henry's best friend first finds out about Henry's condition and says to Claire, "He just disappeared," Claire responds saying, "Yeah, it's a problem." Wonderful understatement. Later, Claire says time travel is "kinda magical." Kinda?! It's a downright miracle, and she says "kinda"? Still later, we learn that Claire's parents are rich Republicans, the white-haired father an avid hunter. Shades of Dick Cheney and more black comedy, given the circumstances of an ending I won't reveal. I dunno.

Moreover, there's a recurring event where Henry meets Claire as a child in a meadow near her home. It's a little creepy, actually, his talking to this little girl who will grow up to love and marry him. Why does he do it? He tells us he cannot control where he time travels, yet he manages to transport himself to the meadow and the little girl time after time, presumably to get her to fall in love with him. He even tells the child Claire at one point exactly when he's going to return and to be ready with clothing.