HL's New Release Review - The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) is a romance-drama about Chicago librarian Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) with a genetic anomaly that causes him to involuntarily time travel, based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger.

When Henry meets Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams) in the library where he works, she reveals that she knows that he is a time traveller, and that he himself told her that they would one day meet. It is quickly revealed that she knows much more about time travel than he does, as he has not yet visited the times and places where they meet previously. He falls for her, as she has already been in love with him 'her whole life', and they eventually get married. His continuing and sudden travels through time, and the subsequent learning of their future, makes things ever more difficult on their marriage.

Read the review after the jump.


If you're confused, you have every right to be. Keeping up with the movie in the beginning can be a tedious task, and even I had to restart watching this movie twice before finishing it. But it becomes a bit clearer after a while, so just sit tight until you catch on.

The scenes between young Clare and a much older Henry can be a tad uncomfortable in a To Catch A Predator kind of way, and I had trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that every time Henry travels through time he ends up at his new destination bare ass naked. You can understand my initial concern.

But fortunately there is more time spent with Clare as an adult than when she is a child with Henry popping up in the woods naked. There are some funny moments, and how can there not be with Ron Livingston playing Henry's best friend, Gomez? Sometimes Bana (whom I generally love) has some patchy acting, but otherwise delivers a convincing role.

There is a time late in the movie where things pick up and become more cohesive, and easily understood, I just wish that they would have spent a little more time in the beginning to ease you into the time travel stuff. I wouldn't watch it again, but it's worth a first viewing.

However, be ye warned, if you've a uterus: bring tissues.