I am a sucker for time-travel movies. I love them actually. I love the whole mind bending nature to them. It probably taps into the whole "what if" nature everyone has - "what if" I could do something different, "what if" I could alter the future. So from films like The Terminator to The Lake House I watch them all. When I first saw the ads for The Time Traveler's Wife I was not impressed. It looked like a confusing, sappy romance, so I skipped it in theaters. One benefit to your local library however is the power to see movies for free. On a side note, why are so many people raving about Red Box? They charge you a dollar a day for a movie - whereas if you have patience (you already didn't want to see it in theaters bad enough) you can get it for free from your local library. So I checked this movie out, for free, and now in retrospect, I'm so glad I didn't spend a dime on a movie that was EXACTLY what I expected it to be.It took me three sittings to finish this movie. I couldn't take it. It's hard for me to explain a plot because it jumps around like crazy. I'll try and just touch on a few things. My favorite element about most time-travel movies is the ability to change the present by altering the past. So when early on we learn that's something the time-traveler in question (Eric Bana) cannot do, it zapped a majority of the fun out of it right there. The relationship side of things was interesting for a little while, as we meet the 'wife' (Rachel McAdams) in question as a young girl. She meets her husband to be when he's naked, because for some reason the clothing never travels with the guy. I couldn't decide if these scenes with a grown man spending time with a little kid were really sweet or really creepy, so I'll let you decide on that one. Some time-travel movies end up sounding stupid when they try to explain the logic - TTTW doesn't even make the attempt, which I guess is okay if everything else went well.
The acting was good, but the story was just too confusing/dull to make this worth even watching for free. A critic on the outside of the DVD box stated that this was the most romantic movie since The Notebook. I didn't like that movie either (the most romantic movie in years is still Wall*E in my humble opinion!). So I wish I could go back in time, with my clothes on, and tell past self to skip this movie. 3.5 out of 10.
Dan, I TOTALLY agree with your assessment on this film! Let me just say that the book is amazing....it fills you in on all the little details and it flows perfectly. The movie, however, was ALL OVER THE PLACE! It jumped from one thing to another so quickly. The flow made no sense whatsoever at times. I luckily had already read the book so the movie was a little easier to follow for me but I could not imagine trying to watch it had I not already read the book and knew what was going on. While I enjoyed the movie, it did not do the book justice at all. And the ending was different from the book....I understand why.....had they included everything the movie wouldve easily been another 30 minutes long.....however, the ending in the book, I thought, was just better....<3
ReplyDeleteTell me, in the book can he change things in the present? I seriously don't understand how a time travel movie cannot have that element! What's the point in time traveling if you cannot alter things?
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