By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Back to the Future without the Delorean.
Ghost without The Righteous Brothers and a lesson in pottery making.
Benjamin Button without Brad Pitt.
The Time Traveler’s Wife isn’t so much about what it is, but what it isn’t.

Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams try their best to make a McDreamy couple and even when the chemistry is right, there just isn’t enough magic in the both of them to make this romance explode on the screen.

The Time Traveler’s Wife would seem to have more in common with Jumper, the lackluster sci-fi from a few years back because  neither film feels very believable.
Henry (Bana) for some never explained genetical reason (that probably is more clearly identified in the book of the same name) has the ability to time travel.

We get the first vivid example of this in the film’s opening scene when 6-year-old Henry is in one of those horrific Hollywood (okay, this was filmed in Canada, but it is supposed to be Chicago) crashes. His mom is at the wheel of the car, and young Henry witnesses the crash on the side of the road as his adult version comforts him and tells him not to worry. He is a time traveler and everything will be all right. (Even though mom is dead at the scene).

Some how this kid manages to avoid a life of therapy and instead begins a life of time traveling.

For the female-dominated audience that will mainly view this film, that means lots of Bana’s naked backside since every time Henry time travels he leaves all of his clothes behind.

Bana’s got the body for it, but for the woman in the row in back of me who said “nice” every time he got naked, there still must have been some disappointment since Bana never does the equivalent of the full monty. I suppose this can be attributed to a few things,  getting a PG-13 rating and given all those cold wintry scenes in Chicago/ Toronto, possibly shrinkage.

Henry first meets Clare (McAdams), the woman who will be the love of his life, in a Chicago library. Clare already knows him. She has been waiting for this moment for years because the adult Henry has been visiting the little girl version of Clare for years and she is already in love with him.

That first child/adult Henry meeting involves a well-placed bush so young Clare is not scarred for life. Fortunately, Clare was having a one-person picnic at the time and slips Henry a blanket in the bush.
 

Henry does more reassuring, doing his standard not to worry, he is a time traveler. Clare, already slightly smitten by the naked young man, now always leaves a set of clothes conveniently nearby because you never know when a naked traveler will drop into your life.

Meanwhile, the adult Henry and Clare make love and make plans for marriage, which would have gone well, except Henry, who can’t control his time-travels disappears minutes before the ceremony (An older version of Henry actually marries Clare).

And back-and-forth it goes — there are pregnancies (the time-traveling baby escapes from the womb) and a looming tragic event that hangs over the film that takes away any chance this film has to be enjoyable in a light, unassuming way.

It is hard to take the leap and believe what is happening in The Time Traveler’s Wife, so despite the good-acting intentions of Bana and McAdams, this film just never really makes much sense.



Critic's Rating: C