Warning: This review does contain spoilers.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is a love story that actually isn’t cringe inducing — despite the ads suggesting otherwise. While the film is heavily flawed, it still remains engaging and entertaining. This is oddly similar to last year’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Button is the superior film, but they are reminiscent in tone. Both films are standard dramas, but have an out-of-this-world character as the lead. Benjamin Button is a fantastical character and Henry DeTamble belongs to the science fiction realm, and yet both films do not belong to those genres. This is a drama that uses a science fiction element to drive the relationship.
Clare (Rachel McAdams) has been in love with Henry (Eric Bana) for her entire life. As a child, she was frequently visited by Henry’s elder self, this is where she gains this attachment. Clare believes they meant to be together forever, despite the fact she knows they will be consistently separated from each other. Henry is a time traveler — he contains a rare genetic anomaly that causes him to live on a shifting timeline, traveling back and fourth through years without any control. He first discovered this when he was a child during a car accident where his mother was killed while he got away. He goes through life wishing he could change events in time and control this puissance. Clare is destined to build a relationship around Henry’s burden and gift. They remain together for years trying to achieve a semi-normal relationship — which isn’t easy due to Henry’s condition.
The story is in someways messy and contains more then a few paradoxes, but in the end it still works. The main reason being that Bana and McAdams deliver heartfelt performances and share genuine chemistry. Their emotions are understandable and the dilemma they face has impact. They live their lives with the knowledge that they will be separated, but their love will hold them together. Henry’s way of time travel is analogous to Billy Pilgrim (Slaughter House Five) as he has no control over the way he travels. Henry is at times taken away from the most profound moments of his life. This is a saddening problem that Bana gives gravitas. He crafts an emotional connection when he is taken away from life’s most cherish-able life moments. McAdams makes Clare an optimistic and hopeful character even though she is consistently separated from Henry. Any other actor could have made this a laughably blind character, but McAdams strays far from this trap. Her love and passion is heartfelt which leads to her optimism being more understanding instead of baffling. They are both involving and believable, making their relationship never coming off sappy.
While there are numerous admirable aspects to be found here, there are also plenty of shortcomings. Henry’s emotions are felt throughout the first two acts, but the third act abandons the most profound idea introduced. Towards the ending of the second act, Henry discovers the year he will die. He obtains the most worrisome pre-knowledge of his life, but the film doesn’t convey this in a satisfactory way. It rushes through the years leading up to his death. This idea is touched upon in a few scenes, but its ultimately underdeveloped. Another unfortunate flaw revolves around two highly entertaining actors who are wasted in their roles — Ron Livingston and Stephen Tobolowsky. Livingston plays Henry and Clare’s closest friend, and yet he has hardly any presence in the story. Henry proclaims him as a good friend by the end, but their relationship is never fully portrayed and it is a needless character. He’s relevant early on, but is nowhere to be found during the later half of the story. Tobolowsky is also stuck in a thankless role playing a scientist that Henry seeks for guidance. His character is used purely for exposition on the mirky scientific side of time travel.
This is far from a perfect love story, but its an enjoyable one. The main performances is what ultimately elevates the rather sloppy story. Unlike countless romantic flair, this contains emotional involvement without feeling too contrived. If the third act wasn’t rushed and the side characters contained actual development, this could have been more then just a likable bittersweet film.
7 out of 10
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