The Time Travellers Wife

Friday 25th February 2011

Director: Robert Schwentke
Year: 2009
Stars: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams

I wanted to see this when it got released at the cinema, but the reviews weren't totally positive, and it was hard to find anybody who was willing to come with me. So it took until this evening, when a friend happened to have the movie on blu ray, for me to get a chance to watch it.

Now I have to admit that I perhaps wasn't giving this film my full attention. I'd been asked round to my friend's house because our husbands, along with 4 other boys, were having a board game evening in the other room. Now they weren't being particularly quiet, and my friend and I were chatting a fair bit. Added to this is the fact that I'd just spent 3 hours on a train, so I wasn't at my most awake.

I mention all this because, to me, the film wasn't that clear. However, I don't think any of the above was enough for it to be entirely my fault that I didn't follow every aspect of the plot. I've read the book (albeit some time ago), and loved it, so I knew enough about the story to know the basics - in its most basic form, a time travelling librarian falls in love and jumps through time meeting his lover between the ages of 6 and 80.

Somehow, the film just doesn't work as well as the book. Whilst the book takes its time explaining and building up the plot, the film treats the story like a basic romance, and makes everything too simple. It feels a lot like the fault of the film makers trying to appeal to a wider audience - and only succeeding in managing to keep nobody happy.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5