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And another movie review - The Time Traveler's Wife
I read the book a couple of years ago and quite liked it. It was one of those wildly popular books that everyone was reading that i actually did read and liked. Quite often the "flavour of the month" book are ones i don't get round to reading for awhile and then find they don't live up to the hype. The time traveling and mixed up timelines sometimes does your head in but it's very good.
Having said that, the movie as you would expect leaves out a lot of the book. I don't remember a lot of details now but it seems the movie focussed on the romance, on the couple and their life rather than give you any detail about what happens to Henry when he's away traveling. You get glimpses but it's mostly about him and Clare and later, their daughter. It's about a man who meets a woman in the library where he works but she tells him she's known him most of her life and he's her best friend. He's a time traveler who has been haunted by the death of his mother in a car crash, where he was in the back seat. That seems to be the first time he traveled, outside the car and watching the crash. He's visited by himself as an adult who tells him what's going on and not to be scared, it'll be ok. He's haunted by the accident because, in spite of the time traveling, he can't change it.
Turns out he first meets Clare when she's a child, playing in a meadow. Only when he travels, he arrives where he's going buck naked so he stays in the bushes and gets her to give him the blanket she's got. It's the start of a beautiful friendship. Sometimes during their life together he does let some little detail of their future out but mostly he doesn't. Sometimes he knows and sometimes he doesn't know what's going to happen because he's not necessarily traveled to the future or returned from the past yet. But she loves him so she puts up with the periods where he's gone, or when he disappears at inopportune moments, leaving just a heap of clothes. It's a genetic anomoly and it also seems to be hindering her being able to carry a baby to term, possibly because the baby "travels" out of the womb but she manages at one point and they have a daughter. What's kind of cool is that they actually used sisters to play the daughter at two ages, 5 and 9/10. I thought they looked so much alike and indeed they were sisters.
Eric Bana plays Henry and Rachel MacAdam plays Claire and i have to say i thought they were very well cast from what i remember thinking of them when i read the book. Eric is suitably haunted and tortured by it all, wanting to be normal and loving Clare and his daughter but never knowing where he's going to end up and what's going to happen when he's there. He has to break and enter, to get in or out of places, to find clothing to wear until he disappears again so he has to be tough to survive. Rachel plays Clare from about the age of 18 onwards, growing up, getting stronger, always devoted to him even when it's a trial.
If you really, really loved the book, you might find the movie a bit disappointing because you don't really get a lot of the detail from Henry's "leaps" back and forth in time, just a few things. The ending is a bit different than the book though ... hmmm how can i put it without giving it away? The ending is still based on something that happens in the book, just not the same ending as the book but it still works ok. I had actually forgotten the book ending but i don't retain all the detail from a book on just the one read.
So it was a very different movie from Julie&Julia which i enjoyed more i think but i did enjoy this one too, even with the sad bits. It makes you think about if you could see your loved ones again after they die, just see them once but then i think that it might be even more difficult after they go again. You'd always be looking for them and hoping for another return and it would be more difficult to move on with your life. As much as we'd all wish to see them again, it's probably better the way it is. We get other things instead. Laurie and i went to Mom's after the movie, stopping at the Tim's drive through on the way. After, she drove me home and when i got out of the car, she called my name, with a sort of insistent tone of voice. I turned around and looked down. I know it was probably from the change from Tim's but we didn't see it when i got out of the car at Mom's, only after.
There was a dime on the seat.
Having said that, the movie as you would expect leaves out a lot of the book. I don't remember a lot of details now but it seems the movie focussed on the romance, on the couple and their life rather than give you any detail about what happens to Henry when he's away traveling. You get glimpses but it's mostly about him and Clare and later, their daughter. It's about a man who meets a woman in the library where he works but she tells him she's known him most of her life and he's her best friend. He's a time traveler who has been haunted by the death of his mother in a car crash, where he was in the back seat. That seems to be the first time he traveled, outside the car and watching the crash. He's visited by himself as an adult who tells him what's going on and not to be scared, it'll be ok. He's haunted by the accident because, in spite of the time traveling, he can't change it.
Turns out he first meets Clare when she's a child, playing in a meadow. Only when he travels, he arrives where he's going buck naked so he stays in the bushes and gets her to give him the blanket she's got. It's the start of a beautiful friendship. Sometimes during their life together he does let some little detail of their future out but mostly he doesn't. Sometimes he knows and sometimes he doesn't know what's going to happen because he's not necessarily traveled to the future or returned from the past yet. But she loves him so she puts up with the periods where he's gone, or when he disappears at inopportune moments, leaving just a heap of clothes. It's a genetic anomoly and it also seems to be hindering her being able to carry a baby to term, possibly because the baby "travels" out of the womb but she manages at one point and they have a daughter. What's kind of cool is that they actually used sisters to play the daughter at two ages, 5 and 9/10. I thought they looked so much alike and indeed they were sisters.
Eric Bana plays Henry and Rachel MacAdam plays Claire and i have to say i thought they were very well cast from what i remember thinking of them when i read the book. Eric is suitably haunted and tortured by it all, wanting to be normal and loving Clare and his daughter but never knowing where he's going to end up and what's going to happen when he's there. He has to break and enter, to get in or out of places, to find clothing to wear until he disappears again so he has to be tough to survive. Rachel plays Clare from about the age of 18 onwards, growing up, getting stronger, always devoted to him even when it's a trial.
If you really, really loved the book, you might find the movie a bit disappointing because you don't really get a lot of the detail from Henry's "leaps" back and forth in time, just a few things. The ending is a bit different than the book though ... hmmm how can i put it without giving it away? The ending is still based on something that happens in the book, just not the same ending as the book but it still works ok. I had actually forgotten the book ending but i don't retain all the detail from a book on just the one read.
So it was a very different movie from Julie&Julia which i enjoyed more i think but i did enjoy this one too, even with the sad bits. It makes you think about if you could see your loved ones again after they die, just see them once but then i think that it might be even more difficult after they go again. You'd always be looking for them and hoping for another return and it would be more difficult to move on with your life. As much as we'd all wish to see them again, it's probably better the way it is. We get other things instead. Laurie and i went to Mom's after the movie, stopping at the Tim's drive through on the way. After, she drove me home and when i got out of the car, she called my name, with a sort of insistent tone of voice. I turned around and looked down. I know it was probably from the change from Tim's but we didn't see it when i got out of the car at Mom's, only after.
There was a dime on the seat.