Movie Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

January 19, 2010 at 12:30 am · Filed under Pop Culture

I don’t usually pick up movies at the DVD store, but I picked up “The Time Traveler’s Wife” because I enjoyed the book.

“Enjoyable” is the perfect way to describe the book. I couldn’t put it down — I read it in a couple of hours one long night, and never picked it up again afterward. It’s well-written, and I recall being smitten by the brilliance of the author, but not really good enough to leave an impression beyond the weekend. Of course, luckily for you, my feelings then were documented on this space, way back in 2006. How weird is it that almost every thing I ever gave enough thought is mentioned somewhere in these bits and bites of transparent data? Even weirder, the post (linked above) is somehow broken, everything in the page is jumbled up, just like the book :)

The movie, on the other hand, not quite as enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t bad, it’s just so… slow. And this is coming from a person who often doesn’t mind slow. I made myself the rest-of-the-week’s morning sandwiches, had my dinner, browsed the internet, and even chatted on the phone a bit, and I didn’t miss a second. That slow.

The visuals are nice and warm. The acting is fantastic (is it just me or is this new Eric Bana guy or whatever his name is really good looking?). Rachel McAdams’ performance was impressive. Audrey Niffengger’s original idea is still brilliant. The make-up person’s ability to make the cast look 40-years-old and 18-years-old is unbelievable (are you digging the adjectives?).

But there’s no way in hell I’m watching that stuff again.
 
http://clubs.ship.edu/uploadedImages/Clubs/APB/the_time_travelers_wife_movie_poster.jpg

Check out the movie poster/DVD cover. I thought that Hammoudeh somehow Photoshopped the image out of its proper horizontal/vertical grace (they did that with my “New Moon” DVD). Apparently though, whoever this movies crazy graphic designer is thought that this was a brilliant idea. It’s not.

Okay, this post turned out to be more blabber than movie review, but come on, in the past six years of authoring this blog, I only have like, what, three movie reviews? And two of them are probably The Lord of the Rings (ahhh, now that is one amazing book/movie/et all).

Did you watch “The Time Traveler’s Wife”? What do you think?






  • Boy

    …bites? Surely you mean bytes! :P

  • http://american-in-jordan.com Dave

    Eric Bana…new? He’s been around a few years. Black Hawk Down, Hulk, Troy, Munich, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Star Trek to name some of his more famous films.

  • http://www.ohseriously.wordpress.com Dee

    i thought it sucked, when i first heard about the idea behind the movie i thought it’d be good, turns out they fu**ed it up cause il sara7a it could have been much better. lawini ma kont garfaneh kteer ma kont 5alasto aslan!

  • Chris

    First off, and this isn’t sarcasm, but that was one kick-ass “kinda” movie review. All over the place, just my style. Movies-Sandwiches-Design… So, anyway, I agree that it was quite boring. Though I liked what it was trying to do, it just failed to do it well. I like both of the leads, so maybe it was the script or something, they just didn’t make me care much for those characters. So, thumbs down. If you haven’t seen it, maybe “The New World,” with Colin Farrell. That’s a really good “slow” movie. And for you at least, he’ll probably also be easy on your eyes. :D

  • http://ghasseel.blogspot.com Mala2e6

    time traveling is one of my fantasies and i love movies that discuss this matter hoping that one of them might give me an idea on how to do it.i loved kate and leopold for instance,it is consistent flows easily and enjoyable,time travelers wife is somehow confusing,if you don’t keep your eyes open,but all in all i found it different and i liked it..specially the clothes bit ;)

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Boy, I do mean bytes! :D I guess I was hungry :P

    Dave, well, I haven’t watched any of those movies so he’s quite new to me :)

    Dee, lol, you’re right. I wouldn’t have finished it either if I was in the mood to do something productive.

    Chris, oh, yeah? I’ll check that out next time I’m at the DVD store. What genre is it?

    Mala2e6, haha, that’s hilarious. Did you read Harry Potter? You might like that then. Time travel is awesome :) My fantasy though is vampirism :P

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention Movie Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife | And Far Away -- Topsy.com

  • Amina

    I haven’t read the book ( but i do plan on picking it up before i leave for uni next month) but i agree. The movie was kinda boring. It dragged on, and on, and on, when it could have ended way sooner that it actually did. Turned out to be a total disappointment and a waste of time.

    My friend sat next to me commenting loudly on ever bit he thought was funny while all the oldies behind us wiped their tears and blew their noses.

  • Noor.D

    it’s so interesting that you reviewed the movie now cause i saw it afew days ago after it being on my list since it came out in september of last year.

    and what a waste was that…i was very disapointed in the movie.

    Pro’s : great acting by Rachel MacAdams, she is brilliant, and as you said the aging was done greatly, espichaly when they viewed her at 18.

    Con’s: not impressed with Eric Bana as the leading role, and thought it wasn’t needed to see him that naked twice or three times during it!!

    over all it was missing alot of things, won’t recommend it.

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Amina, lol, yeah, it is an old person movie! :P It could have been much shorter too for sure.

    Noor.D, really? You didn’t like his acting? I thought hr was fantastic!