Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Day Sixty-Eight: The Time Traveler's Wife

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE

Starring:
-Eric Bana
-Rachel McAdams

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Screenplay Credits: Bruce Joel Rubin

MPAA Rating: PG-13 - because Eric Bana cannot keep his clothes on


Some movies just need to have happy endings. I feel like this was one of those movies. Sadly, the screenwriter, director, and producer (and, coincidentally, the woman who wrote the novel originally) disagreed with me.

This movie was a head trip from the very beginning. You cannot afford to make a run for the potty without pausing because it's almost a guarantee that you will miss something vital to understanding what the heck is going on. My movie watching buddy and I compared it to THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT in that a single viewing is not going to answer all your questions, or leave you satisifed.

The prolbem with both of these movies is that neither one was compelling enough for me to ever desire a second viewing.

The movie is about a man named Henry who, for whatever reason, time travels. We has no control over when or where he goes, and the real kicker is, he always goes naked. So he's pretty much a criminal in all the other times because he has to break into people's homes and steal clothes.

The real victim here is his poor wife, Rachel McAdams, who loves him so much she wouldn't dream of leaving him, even though he time travels away from her- sometimes for weeks at a time. So even though the main character is Henry, the story is all about how his traveling influenced and affected his wife. I guess that's the point of the story really, given the title.

Henry and his long-suffering wife eventually have a kid (one who does not time travel out of the womb...yeah, you heard me) whom they name Alba. Like Jessica Alba, who I used to get confused with Rachel AcAdams. Anyway, the kid has the time traveling gene, but it's mutated a little. This means that she can occasionally control when, and where she goes, and how long she is gone. What she fails to report is what everybody wants to know: CAN YOU KEEP YOUR CLOTHES?!?!?!

Maybe I'm biased, but I think it would be infinitely worse to be a woman turning up naked somewhere than a man.

There were good performances by the adorable McAdams and (beautiful, simply beautiful) Bana, but as a whole, I wouldn't recommend THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE to anybody, unless they were interested in the phenomenon of time travel, or they just wanted to stare at Bana's butt.

You know what? On second thought, everybody go look at Eric Bana's butt!


FINAL GRADE: C+

Off in search of clothing,

M.

2 comments:

  1. My mom saw this with some friends and thought it was strange.

    I still say Scott Bakula is the only cool time traveler

    ReplyDelete
  2. For whatever reason, I have a hard time placing "Scott Spatula" and the word "cool" in the same sentence.

    ReplyDelete