The Time Traveler’s Wife (Movie Review)

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a movie for people who aren’t really that into time travel. It avoids getting bogged down in the sci-fi specifics of its premise, in which a man named Henry (Eric Bana) spends his entire life jumping through time from one year to the next, and instead focuses on the emotional impact that has. The result is a film that’s kind of like The Notebook meets Quantum Leap, and not just because it co-stars Rachel McAdams. Yet director Robert Schwentke’s approach to Henry’s never ending time travel dilemma is simple and sentimental. After a summer full of overly complicated and utterly empty robotic explosions, it’s a welcome relief.

Unfortunately before it can get good, Time Traveler’s Wife begins with one of the worst cinematic sins. If there are people in a car and they’re happy, we know they’re going to die. It’s a scene that’s been done to death so many times it’s expected. No one ever shows families riding around on screen unless something horrible is about to happen to them. It’s a cliché well past its expiration date….(Click for the rest of the review)