DVDs in Review

The Time Traveler's Wife

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

Release date: February 8 2010

Certificate: 12

Format: Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: £19.99

Rating: 2.5/5

Romance films depend on the passing on time - seldom are they rapid courses like action films are. Onscreen relationships usually need years of getting together, drifting apart and getting back together again to develop the characters, and in the last few years two romantic fantasies have subverted the usual playing of time in a coupling. They are 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and now 'The Time Traveler's Wife'.

The former was a massive success for Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett under David Fincher's unique direction. This doesn't have quite the same elk of stars nor a director of the same calibre - Eric Bana ('Hulk', 'Munich') and Rachel McAdams ('The Notebook', 'Red Eye') are the good looking lovers while Robert Schwentke ('Flightplan') tries to ground the unbelievable material.

Henry (Bana) is a librarian who has a very rare and even more fictional genetic disorder which forces him to travel through time, vanishing from his current location leaving a heap of clothes on the floor. He wakes up somewhere else at a date in the past or the future, completely naked.

The only grounding he has his in his disparate life is Clare (McAdams) - a woman who puts up with his frequent time travelling, even if it causes her to be abandoned on her wedding night. The time travelling is a metaphor for not being around in a relationship, but this film's problem is that it treats the time traveling as if it were nothing.

Put in chronological order, this film wouldn't be all that interesting. Not much would happen. Is there any real difference between the time travelling and a man who is constantly called away on urgent business? This film doesn't seem to think so. Never is this problem Henry has debated about - the characters just put up with it and the subsequent danger.

What is interesting about this plot device, however, is that Clare can go and have an affair with an earlier, more agreeable version of her own husband. There's plenty of action and date-hopping in this film, but not enough development to sustain it.

Bana could've played it angrier, knowing that his presence is annoyingly fleeting. McAdams could've been more powerless and introverted, afraid to leave someone with such a condition. Instead they're both quite ordinary and predictable.

This also would benefit from a stronger script and more inspired direction. It's confusing not knowing what period the film is in, especially when it jumps so frequently - simple title cards could've helped and narration by the two characters like how Audrey Niffenegger's book was structured wouldn't go a miss either.

Still, this is a suitably emotive romance that has some good elements. It's certainly worth watching, but a bit more time on the production could've elevated it to the same standard of (the much debated, but brilliantly crafted) 'Benjamin Button'.