The Time Traveler's Wife

I'm a sucker for any movie involving time travel.  Even one under the guise of a romantic drama was added to my Netflix queue, no questions asked.  Yet another in the seemingly unending stream of novels adapted for the big screen, this movie, starring Eric Bana (who has had recent experience as a time traveler) and Rachel McAdams, is based on the book of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger.

Like Snakes on a Plane, the title tells you pretty much all you need to know about this one.  It is about Henry (Bana), who is a man who travels through time, and how he met his wife Clare (McAdams).  Suffering from a genetic disorder that is never explained beyond "something something electromagnetism" and that it can be triggered by alcohol (sounds like Lost to me), Henry inexplicably and uncontrollably catapults back and forth through time at random times, sans clothing.  No he is not a Terminator.  He meets a Clare as a woman who knows his future self from the past.  Having heard the story and read about things he was going to have done (future past - a new tense?) and then does them.  Confusing?  Actually not really.  Self fulfilling prophecies?  Coming out the wazoo.

I thought the movie would be exceedingly confusing, what with flashes to and from other time lines with alternate versions of Bana streaking (literally) across the screen, but it wasn't.  After some initial befuddlement, the movie settles out into a surprisingly logical sequence.  Maybe all the years of watching Star Trek have wired my brain for the intricacies of time travel, but for the most part, it all makes sense.

It doesn't feel like a romance with a gimmick tacked on.  If anything, it is a fantasy with some romance thrown on top.  A lot of romance.  The time travel aspect opens it up for a lot of interesting questions.  The film spends a lot of time exploring these, but only because there are a lot of them.  There isn't much dwelling on any one thing.  Sometimes that's a good thing, but not here.  Every time something got interesting, we changed gears.  Despite the frequency of shifting, the movie never accelerated much, and didn't go all that far.  The greatest sense of urgency in the movie was him trying to find some clothes each time he popped into another time.  Seriously.  It was interesting, and different enough, but not mind blowing in any way.

The Time Traveler's Wife tries to sneak science fiction to the chick flick crowd and succeeds.  Unfortunately, it doesn't succeed enough to be all that memorable.

*** (3/5 stars)