A Typical Love Story

It's often more difficult to watch a mediocre film with potential than one that is downright awful. The Time Traveler's Wife is one of those movies. With source material from a best-selling novel, two talented and gorgeous leads (Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams), and an Oscar-winning screenwriter (Bruce Joel Rubin, Ghost), The Time Traveler's Wife has all of the ingredients for success, but it falls flat.

Henry DeTamble (Bana) has a genetic disorder. Without warning, he disappears and travels throughout time. (Whenever Henry does travel, he cannot take his clothes with him, so the film could be titled, How Often Can Eric Bana Get Naked?). Henry often travels to the same places, often where he can interact with loved ones. One of those people is Claire Abshire (Rachel McAdams), his (future) wife. He first meets Claire when she is six (he's forty-something) in a field behind her parents' home, and she falls in love with him immediately. Years later, when they finally meet in real-time, their love story begins.

It's quite bizarre and confusing watching an older man befriend a young girl whom he will one day marry. All creepiness aside, The Time Traveler's Wife succeeds when it's a story about love not about science fiction. There's not a problem with the story, the time traveling makes the film interesting -- it's the way that director Robert Schwentke handles it. The film spends too much time on Henry's naked time travels and not enough establishing the smoldering love between himself and Claire.

Bana and McAdams are formidable leads with chemistry. McAdams is particularly strong. She has yet to misstep in her career, and the performance here is another for her resume. Bana is equally reliable, and it's quite a feat that a muscular Australian can play vulnerability so well, but he is also part of the film's problem. As Henry travels, he is seen at varying ages, but Bana looks exactly the same in every scene.

The second half of the film, which is less dependent on the time traveling, is far better than the first, but it's not enough to elevate this mediocre love story.

Grade: B