Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Time Traveler's Wife
2009
**½
Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean, Stephen Tobolowsky, Arliss Howard, Brooklynn Proulx, Hailey McCann, Tatum McCann

Henry suffers from Chrono-Displacement disorder, which causes him to time-travel spontaneously and uncontrollably. Claire, the love of his life, has known him since she was six, but only meets the real time Henry when she's 20. Will these two lovers be forever out of sync? Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 bestseller offered an exhilarating mix of romance and science fiction. This handsome looking adaptation tells the same story, but it cannot match the novel's endless inventiveness or its emotional impact. The film rushes through the main beats of the book, but it's not able to convey the passage of time. The script was co-written by the death-obsessed Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost and Jacob's Ladder), who spends too much time preparing us for the impending tragedy and not enough time making us care about the unfolding events. What's left is a gimmicky and uninvolving romance in the vein of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.