The best thing about The Time Traveler’s Wife is that whenever Henry
(Eric Bana) travels to a new time, WHABAM. There is his ass. He can’t
take his clothes with him when he travels, and it is fantastic. If they
would only cut the plot—girl marries guy who time-travels
uncontrollably, dramatic shenanigans ensue, yada yada—and change
the title to Eric Bana Doesn’t Even Try to Act Because He Is Too Busy
Trying to Find Some Clothes, I would approve of this movie
wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately, Bana does try to act, and it doesn’t work. For most
of the movie, he is either completely wooden or unconvincingly
thrilled. Or awkward. On a couple of his time travels he meets his
wife, Clare (Rachel McAdams), when she is 6, and the encounters are
just as weird as they sound. He knows the 6-year-old will have sex with
him… but in the future! And they’re going to get married, so it’s
okay! He’s not a pedophile AT ALL, if you think about it, and that’s
exactly the problem. I had to think a lot about Henry—whether he
was creepy, whether it was believable that Clare was so into him,
whether he would make a facial expression anytime soon, etc.—and
it was distracting.

McAdams’s charisma almost saves the movie, though; Clare’s struggle
to make her marriage work in spite of her husband’s irrepressible
time-traveling is moving. McAdams is also surprisingly funny—when
Henry shows up at their wedding 10 years older than he was the day
before, her “What the hell?” makes the scene. But she can’t carry a
whole sci-fi romance herself, even with the help of picturesque scenery
and Bana’s butt. recommended

2 replies on “<i>The Time Traveler’s Wife</i>: Eric Bana’s Butt Is Not Enough”

  1. I nearly cried when I saw the preview for this movie. It’s one of my favorite novels, and I knew Bana would ruin it. McAdams, however, is delightful. I ALMOST want to stomach the film for her, but..I prefer the imagined characters within my head.

  2. If you love stories about women who sacrifice their whole lives for creeps who “know” they are meant to be together, this one’s for you! The book sucked, too. I mean, what planet do you have to be from to think this nasty little joke of a story is romantic? It’s a love song to the patriarchy, for God’s sake. The woman has no life!

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