Sunday, August 23, 2009

Quick Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

On one level, it's amusing that a movie about a man who travels back and forth through time is so unconcerned about the technical aspects of that subject. How does he do it? Apparently it's genetic, but there's nothing more specific. Why does he seem to end up in the same places so often? Why is it that he seems to show up at a different age in his life instead of returning to the point from which he left? He disappears just before his wedding, then returns, except he's older and has some gray hair. At another time his older self leaves and his younger self returns, which conveniently allows for a key plot occurrence that drives the end of the movie. The only answer that matters to the filmmakers is "Who cares?" The sci-fi aspects have to take a backseat to the love affair.

Eric Bana is pretty, and occasionally naked (no frontal views, this is a PG-13 film) since his clothes don't travel through time with him. But the romance is just ridiculous. His wife (Rachel McAdams) first meets him when she's a little girl because he appears in the woods in back of her family's home in one of his time trips. When they first meet as adults, he doesn't recognize her. It was an older version of him, you see. The contrivances are too much. It's also hard to take seriously when, shortly after they marry, she starts whining about how hard it is to live with a man who is always disappearing, and how she didn't have a choice because he kept appearing to her, etc. He then takes advantage of his time travel to do something that, in a way, isn't really different than what Kobe Bryant did when his wife was unhappy after his cheating. Remember, boys: if your wife is unhappy, just pay her off and you'll live happily ever after. My grade: C-minus.

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