The Time Traveler's Wife | 
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| Director: Robert Schwentke
Actors: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston
Studio: New Line
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $5.94
You Save: $14.04 (70%)
New (45) Used (43) from $3.99
Rating:  126 reviews
Sales Rank: 688
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: TRNDN095233D
UPC: 794043132353
EAN: 0794043132353
ASIN: B001HN69C2
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 2009
Release Date: February 9, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A romantic drama about a chicago librarian with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel and the complications it creates for his marriage. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 02/09/2010 Starring: Eric Bana Rating: Pg13 Director: Robert Schwentke
Amazon.com
A genuinely old-fashioned Hollywood romance with a science fiction angle, The Time Traveler's Wife stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder causing him to travel through time involuntarily. The screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (My Life), based on a novel by Audrey Niffenegger, incorporates some of those crazy paradoxes that are a part of time-travel fiction, but without beating one over the head. Take Henry's introduction to his future wife, Clare (Rachel McAdams), who tells him they've already met even though they haven't actually met. Brain teasers, however, are not what The Time Traveler's Wife is about. In a quite haunting way, the story really concerns what it means to know and love someone at every phase of his or her life. The fact that Henry's life, from Clare's perspective, is hardly linear--he can disappear and turn back up again at different ages--means that she must cherish what is essential about him. Which doesn't mean the couple is immune to periods of unhappiness, including a painful sequence about trying to bear a child--perhaps a child that might also carry the time-traveling gene. While there is nothing particularly exciting stylistically about The Time Traveler's Wife, in many ways it has the simple charms and clear emotions of a 1940s weepie assigned by a studio to one of its journeyman, contract directors. (The film was directed by Flightplan's Robert Schwentke.) A couple of supporting players, Arliss Howard (as Henry's father) and Ron Livingston (as Henry's friend), provide even more reason to recommend this movie as a satisfying experience. --Tom Keogh
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 126
 It touched my heart and triggered many thoughts of my wife September 7, 2010
S. H. Davis
I know this is not a typical "guy movie", and I'm a fairly athletic, un-feminized 55 year old male. I've NEVER read a romance novel. I've traveled as a consultant for way too many weeks of the year for years, as I'm such a specialist in a niche profession (customizing and implementing major clinical information systems) that there is no work for me in rural S. Illinois, so either we move (lots of issues there) or I travel.
I saw it on HBO, twice actually as I caught it the 1st time a little bit in, so watched it again the next day.
Triggered a lot of thoughts about my wife and our relationship. We met my freshman year in college and I never went out with anyone else after.
I ended up calling her several hours after the 2nd viewing, letting her know I'd been thinking about her and that I missed her. I periodically say "I love you" or "I've been thinking about you", but I can't honestly say I can remember the last time I said "I miss you".
I have read some reviews of this movie that panned it, that came across as the viewpoint of at least partially jaded purists.
I've never commented on a movie before and would never envision myself as a critic.
The movie works, and I believe it touches heart. In the process (watching, thinking after), it makes you reflect on the things that ultimately matter much more that what unfortunately frequently occupies our attention.
 Hmm...I wanted to like it ((may have a spoiler or two)) September 5, 2010
LuvBooks (DC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like Rachel McA and I am so-so with Eric Bana ('Hulk' notwithstanding), but that wasn't enough for me. I've never read the book, so I can't comment on what was missing or changed. I don't read a ton of books or watch movies using time-travel, but this one was a little hard to grip. I didn't really understand the movie until I went to the trusty IMDb boards. Basically the main thing you need to know is (((((((SPOILER COMING UP)))))))) is that there's a Past Henry, a Present Henry, and a Future Henry. HOWEVER, it is ALWAYS the PRESENT for whoever (Clare, Alba) in whatever timeframe he's in. So for example, when he meets 6 yr old Clare...that's HER present, but he's a FUTURE Henry. When he goes back, he's PRESENT Henry with PRESENT Clare. Also, regardless of everything, "life" has already happened or (for 6 yr old Clare) is scheduled to happen.
Or something like that. Honestly, my mind still hasn't totally grasped what I watched.
The movie was easy enough to watch, and one of the things I found interesting was that Future Henry never tried to influence past events. For example, he "meets" his mom on the train (FUTURE Henry meets the mom of 6 yr old Henry--again MOM'S present), but doesn't indicate to her that she's going to die. Also, he doesn't try to influence the outcome of his own tragedy. However, at the same time, when Clare got the winning lottery ticket, he told her that she was going to win. So for me, it seemed like the movie influenced the events that it wanted to.
Again, "life" in this movie is going to happen regardless and the knowledge that Henry doesn't alter anything sort of makes for a confusing experience. Sometimes a jumbled mess. So the idea that just by being there Henry alters history is non-existent. Apparently, he's also unable to know where/when he will be when he travels, although he conveniently comes to the rescue (wedding day and the vasectomy day) on a couple of occasions. One other thing that wasn't clear to me was at the end (((((SPOILER COMING UP))) when Henry travels to the future and sees Alba and Clare and tells Clare not to wait for him. Is this before or after Alba informs him of his death? And does that also mean that eventually he will stop appearing to them...once Present Henry actually dies? I guess I'd just be curious to know if death ends the time travel bc if Alba is 11...he should be dead and in theory, Clare shouldn't be waiting for him. Right?
Who knows. When the credits rolled I had tons of questions. The performances were decent, and I especially loved using two sisters to play Alba at ages 4/5 and 9/10.
 infuriatingly stupid September 4, 2010
Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the dumbest movies I've ever seen, featuring a complicated but ultimately stupid plot. I had to stop it about once every fifteen minutes on account of being so dumbstruck by its inanity.
It's a time-travel story. Sure, all time-travel stories have fatal contradictions at their core, but the best ones (e.g., Heinlein's "The Door into Summer") can at least get some good mileage out of the premise before things break down, as they inevitably must.
But this movie doesn't manage get an inch of mileage. Instead the viewer is assaulted by the contradictions full on; they're shoved right in his face to the point where it's impossible to think of anything else. Chiefly this is a result of their having made the script too complicated.
I supposed I would be more forgiving if the filmmakers had had enough presence of mind to develop the allegorical aspects of their premise more boldly (say, time-travelling as a metaphor for someone who cannot deal with his problems and when weighed down by life's fardels chooses to live in the past or simply daydream). But if the authors of this script meant anything like that, the actual execution of the film really dropped the ball with it, as the director instead chose to focus on the quotidian difficulties of time-jumping (e.g., having no clothes) instead of any metaphorical meanings.
 WTH did I just watch? September 2, 2010
D. Mikels (Skunk Holler)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Time travel should be intriguing--not goofy. A genetic disorder that causes involuntary time travel, whereby the traveler arrives in the past, or future, in his birthday suit, and he has no control over how long he stays? Plus said traveler must resort to breaking and entering to find clothes for his person, ticking off countless property owners and law enforcement personnel.
Like I said, goofy. Pass the Pepcid.
Thus we have the silly mess that is THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. A confused-looking Eric Bana is the time traveler, a mild-mannered Chicago librarian who turns into a WWF brawler when he has to go find something to wear. His "disorder" supposedly is beyond his control--he doesn't know when he'll disappear to travel in time, nor how long he'll be gone--yet at one point he tells his future wife, six at the time, the exact day he'll be back so that she may leave some of her father's clothes in the bushes for him.
This thing is more uneven than my latest P&L statement.
At the center of this silliness is a love story--the marriage of the time traveler and his starry-eyed wife (Rachel McAdams). It goes without saying his popping in and out of her life produces considerable strain on the relationship. A missed Christmas here, a zany wedding there, an image of him fatally wounded in the hallway for melodramatic effect, and that pretty much sums it up. McAdams's character exhibits the patience of Job, which sets a good example for anyone wanting to watch the spectacle that is THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. Be prepared to be dazed, confused. . .and bored.
--D. Mikels
 Not really much sci fi, but a solid character study romance August 30, 2010
Brent Butler (North Carolina)
"The Time Traveler's Wife" takes a simple approach to a time travel gimmick, and uses it to explore a very unique character study. Essentially, a boy learns that he travels in time when an older version of himself shows up at a traumatic moment to explain to him what is going on. Through his life, he is unable to control the mechanism of his time trips, which happen at random and often inconvenient moments.
In the process, as a young man our time traveling hero meets a little girl on a solo picnic. Over the years of her childhood and teenage years he appears several times, and she of course develops a crush on him. When they finally encounter each other as young adults of about the same age, they fall in love and marry. The movie's mechanism has two characters encountering each other almost randomly at various ages of the two people. This is a unique concept and was very interesting.
Complexities arise when it turns out that his time traveling curse is of genetic origin, and attempts at having a child result in unexplained miscarriages, and concomitant pressure on their relationship.
I found this to be a very sweet story. It promotes the interest of the viewer without the overly dramatic devices that most movies have to resort to. Tension is provided almost solely by the consequences of unexpected time travel incidents, rather than through character conflict. Although there is some character conflict, it is really minimal. There is a very simple story, a very simple romantic relationship, yet a very compelling movie.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 126
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