I never thought a movie about a guy trying to maintain a marriage
while involuntarily time-traveling could possibly be worth squat. The
commercials for The Time Traveler’s Wife were making me gag, so
I didn’t sit down for the movie with a big bag of faith resting on my
lap. It looked like it was going to be stupid.
Well, it is stupid, but it’s the good kind of stupid. A cast of fine
actors lock themselves into that stupid premise, and the results are
charming, sometimes funny—and even a little bit
heartbreaking.
Henry DeTamble (played winningly by Eric Bana) is afflicted with
some sort of gene disorder that causes him to time-travel, often
without warning. He’ll be carrying dishes to a dinner table, or jumping
on his bed for honeymoon festivities, and off he goes: He feels a
tingly sensation and then zips through time, leaving his clothes
behind. He shows up in different times in the past and the future,
stark-naked like Arnie in the Terminator movies.
Henry often travels to the same places at different times, and one
of his main stomping grounds is a sunny meadow where his future wife,
Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams, no stranger to a good love story), often
recreates. When Henry meets Clare as a child, he is already married to
her in the future, so this causes some confusion. It also leads to a
naked man talking to a young girl who has never met him before.
A side note to any young girls reading this: If a naked man should
ever meet you in a meadow and tell you he is your future husband,
please kick him in the balls, and scream for help. He is lying and
certifiably nuts.
This ridiculous stuff works well within the confines of director
Robert Schwentke’s movie, because Bana and McAdams treat it like
reality. While Clare gets a little whiny when Henry misses Christmas or
a dinner, they don’t spend too much time wallowing in the misery. They
are convincingly in love, with some extenuating circumstances that they
have chosen to deal with, for better or for worse.
Bana is having a good summer. His brief but powerfully funny
performance as the confused husband in Funny People is still
playing at theaters, and his work here further proves he’s an actor
with great range. Most actors would’ve really screwed up this role, but
Bana hits the right notes throughout the film. Henry winds up being a
well-balanced character, all things considered. While the whole
time-traveling thing can be a bit frustrating, he also acknowledges it
as a sort of gift. Hey, anybody who gets to marry Rachel McAdams
doesn’t have a whole lot to complain about.
McAdams was in a little mini-slump since her fun performance in
2005’s The Family Stone, but this one gets her back on track.
The script forces her to make Clare a little whiny and selfish at one
point, and that’s a little tiresome. Thankfully, the screenplay and
McAdams recover for a satisfying conclusion. She can put this one
alongside The Notebook as being one of her best works.
The Time Traveler’s Wife reminded me of another preposterous
but effective love story, The Lake House, a silly movie made
entertaining by two performers who know how to work their material.
Bana and McAdams are one of this year’s more effective and enchanting
screen duos. Just don’t go looking for something logical, because
you’re bound to be let down.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.
My wife saw the Time Traveler’s Wife and aside from disliking it, she also mentioned a scene where Rachel McAdams showed her naked back to the screen and it was readily apparently that she was little more than a skeleton. My wife reported that many women in the theater with her went “Ew!” at the scene and then spent the rest of the picture hoping Rachel McAdams would eat something.