The Time Traveller's Wife, movie review

The movie The Time Traveler's Wife did a really good job of adapting Audrey Niffenegger's book of the same title. It would've been impossible to capture all the nuances and details from the book, so director Robert Schwentke focuses rather on the core story and allows it to breathe and tell itself. The absence of embellishments of excess emotion, imposing music and other dramatic devices is refreshing, and the movie is more affecting for being real (obviously not the time travel element).

The story relies so heavily on the characters of Henry and Claire that a bad casting choice would have been disastrous, but Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams somehow adapt themselves to the characters brilliantly. I must admit I was a little skeptical at first because, as with any book, you imagine the characters a certain way and I certainly didn't imagine those two (not thin or nerdy enough! I thought of Eric Bana and too young and pretty, of Rachel McAdams). but they did a great job as Henry and Claire. They share a very different kind of love story with a number of chronological issues, but it's the human element that makes this movie so watchable.

You do have to go with an open mind because you'll have massive issues with the time travel aspect if not, and that would really do a disservice to the story. It's not about time travelling itself (explained as a genetic disorder), but about the effect it has on the afflicted Henry and his longsuffering wife Claire. The mind could really boggle with the implications, but now is not the time to let the sci-fi nerd within loose. Let go of logic and go for the ride. Oh, and take a box of tissues.