The Time Traveler's Wife

Release Date: August 14th, 2009

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When he is a young boy, Henry(Eric Bana) is riding in the car with his mother(Michelle Nolden) shortly before Christmas. On their way home, a drunk driver begins to swerve on the snow and is headed straight for them. During the intense moments before the inevitable crash, Henry starts to disappear until he is completely gone from the car leaving nothing but a pile of clothes. The next thing he knows, Henry is naked in the very street he and his mother were just on, witnessing the crash from the side of the road. As he runs to the crash he is stopped by a man who tells young Henry that he is him from the future. Older Henry tells younger Henry what just happened and tells him what he must do. He then gives young Henry a blanket before disappearing himself. The older Henry finds himself time traveled back to the library in which he works. He picks up his clothes and gets dressed before going into the main room to continue working.

Clare Abshire(Rachel McAdams) is an adolescent girl playing in the field behind her parents estate in the 70's. While playing one day, she hears a rustling off in the bushes. When she calls out, a man answers back. Clare threatens to tell her parents but the man talks her out of it and asks her for her blanket. Once wrapped in the blanket, an adult Henry emerges from the bushes and explains to Clare that he is a time traveler. When Clare doesn't believe him, he tells her to wait long enough and she will see for herself. Henry asks Clare to bring a set of her fathers clothes to leave in the bush for the next time he comes. Clare agrees and Henry fades away, leaving Clare stunned.

One day, while Henry is working at the library as usual, he runs into a very grown up Clare who, having seen Henry throughout a big portion of her life, recognizes him instantly. Clare and Henry have dinner where Clare proceeds to explain the relationship between the two of them, Henry has never seen Clare before, according to him. But the fact is, he has not traveled to her in this point of his life yet. But Henry believes Clare when she shows him a journal where she recorded every time he came to see her. After this first encounter, Henry and Clare begin to form a relationship. However, Henry's time traveling begins to take its toll. Henry can not control when or where he travels which makes it difficult to handle. Every time he time travels, Henry winds up naked in a city he doesn't know and in a time he doesn't know. He has to quickly find clothes, which causes him to steal often, leading to more conflicts in his life. Henry then has to figure out what time he is in and has to make due until he travels back.

Clare takes Henry to meet her two best friends Charisse(Jane McLean) and her boyfriend Gomez(Ron Livingston) in an effort to make Henry a bigger part of her life. Henry runs into Gomez a little while later after he time travels. Henry ends up outside a night club that Gomez was at. Henry had to steal the first clothes he could find and ended up putting on a skin tight pink frilly tank top and skin tight denim short shorts which attracted the unwanted attention from a group of guys in the alley. The men began to attack Henry believing him to be homosexual. Henry beats up the main guy as Gomez comes around the corner and sees him, breaking it up. Henry then breaks into an army supply store next door to the club with Gomez right behind him. Henry explains to Gomez that he is a time traveler. Gomez begins to think Henry is crazy until he witnesses Henry time travel before his very own eyes. Gomez then goes and tells Clare what he saw, telling her to break up with Henry because of his condition. Clare explains to Gomez that she has always known about it and that she still loves Henry, no matter what.

Henry and Clare decide to get married. Henry goes back home to his father's house, asking him for his mother's engagement and wedding rings. Henry has not had a good relationship with his father(Arliss Howard) since the death of his mother. Henry's father is bitter and believes that Henry should travel back in time and stop his mother from getting into the car that night. As Henry begins to leave, his father gives him the rings. The wedding is to take place at Clare's family's estate. There is a good turnout and even Henry's father cleans up and comes out, much to the surprise, yet great happiness, of Henry. As Henry and Gomez are getting ready for the ceremony, Henry time travels away, leaving Gomez in a nervous fret not knowing what to do. A few minuets later, a much older Henry with some gray hair arrives at the window. Gomez lets him in and the older Henry goes off and marries Clare, who realizes that it is an older Henry. The two get married and go off on their honeymoon. In the hotel room the two begin to celebrate their marriage when Henry again time travels away leaving Clare alone in the hotel room. Over the years, Henry and Clare's relationship begins to have troubles as Henry continues to be uncontrollably transported through time.

When Clare begins to fell cramped by Henry's small apartment, they start to look for a house. Clare likes many of the ones they look at but Henry, having been to the future, knows which one they want. They finally settle on an older house that needs some renovations. Clare is initially dissatisfied with the house until Henry shows her the garage and tells her that it is to become her new art studio. The two move in and start fixing the place up. But more problems arise when a bloody, wounded Henry ends up on the floor of Clare and Henry's house. Henry looks in disbelief at himself lying their bleeding. The wounded Henry disappears and Henry doesn't know what to do. Clare tells Henry that in the future Henry told her once about a Dr. Kendrick(Stephen Tobolowsky) in the future that helps Henry with his condition. Henry seeks out Dr. Kendrick and asks for help. Dr. Kendrick believes Henry to be ill until Henry asks him about a grant is trying to win. Dr. Kendrick, having not told anybody about it, asks Henry how he knows at which point Henry begins to talk about his ability. Dr. Kendrick storms out of his office, giving no aid to Henry. To make matters worse, Clare becomes pregnant. Clare is ecstatic about but all Henry can think about is whether or not his condition will carry over to his child.

Clare has a miscarriage and the two begin to wonder if the baby is traveling outside of the womb. After hearing this, Dr. Kendrick agrees to help Henry and to figure out his condition. Through the process Clare has another miscarriage. Dr. Kendrick learns that Henry's condition has to do with his neurological pathways and frequencies in his head and that it could have carried onto his child. Dr. Kendrick believes that high stress from the mother could cause flare ups in the babies brain which would cause it to time travel. When Clare becomes pregnant for a third time, her and Henry work hard to keep calm and let the baby not be under any stress. Clare begins to get depressed, hoping this baby lives. Henry tells her that this one does live because he has seen her in the future.

One time, while Henry is in the future, he is approached by his daughter Alba(Hailey McCann) Who is now almost 10 years old. Alba tells Henry that when she was 5 years old, he died. The sight of the wounded Henry starts to make more sens to Henry now. When Henry travels back to his present life, He sees 4 year old Alba playing with 10 year old Alba who had time traveled to that point. 10 year old Alba tells 4 year old Alba about what was going to happen to Henry and Henry makes Alba promise not to tell Clare. On Alba's fifth birthday, Henry finally tells Clare that he is going to die sometime this year.

Henry time travels back to his house and ends up outside in the snow. He then sees fireworks in the sky and witnesses everybody in his house, who were there for a party, rushing over to the wounded Henry. When Henry is transported to that same night a few moments before his wounded self arrives, he asks Gomez to step outside with him. Henry thanks Gomez for being such a wonderful friend and asks him to take care of Clare and Alba for him. Gomez realizes what Henry is trying to tell him and the two hug before Clare comes out to see whats going on. Gomez goes back inside and Henry begins to tell Clare that tonight is the night he is going to die. Although the reasons for Henry's death are still a mystery, he knows that it is going to happen tonight. Henry and Clare say their final goodbyes as Henry disappears in Clare's arms. A few moments later, Henry wakes up in lying in the snow in a forest. He looks to his left and sees a very large buck standing next to him. Off in the distance he hears two hunters, the buck runs and the hunters shoot at it, accidentally hitting Henry who is immediately transported to the living room of his house.

A few years pass and Alba is at the zoo on a class field trip. while at the zoo, a group of people begin laughing at a man who is in one of the displays. The man turns out to be a younger Henry. When he leaves the cage, he is approached by Alba who screams out "Daddy!". Alba tells Henry that at this point in her life he is dead. Henry talks with Alba some more before she is called away by her teacher. Henry again travels through time and ends up in the same field he always would visit Clare in. He looks down and sees the same clothes Clare always left for him. When he emerges from the field he sees Alba playing with Charisse's and Gomez's kid. Alba tells them to go and get Clare. Henry comments on the clothes to which Alba says you can never be too careful. Clare comes running from the house and sees Henry. The two embrace, having not seen each other in some time. Henry begins to slowly time travel away as the movie ends.

O.k., so this movie is based off of the book of the same title from author Audrey Niffenegger. If ever there was a sappy romantic chick flick it would be this movie. Other critics will try to draw you into this movie telling you it has the romantic plot for the women combined with interesting sci-fi for the guys. Well that is a lie. While the concept of the time traveling is very interesting and compelling, it is dramatically overpowered by the romanticism of the plot. But this story is first and foremost a romantic movie and a sci-fi movie second. Eric Bana is a decent actor and did a fairly decent job although his performance did leave something to be desired. Rachel McAdams did a good job as well. She is becoming a more widely known name in the business and can certainly become one of Hollywood's top actresses.

This just isn't my type of movie. The ladies will definitely find this tearjerker a wonderful romantic movie that will make them cry and do whatever else it is you girls do. Guys, don't be suckered in to the false pretenses of sci-fi that will try to draw you in, it isn't really there. I didn't really like anything about this movie. The whole time i watched I could stop asking myself when it was going to be over. The acting was good but the premise was just dull and uninteresting to me. While the thought of a man who uncontrollably travels through time and the burdens it puts on his life is an interesting concept, this movie doesn't focus on it. This movie is about the time traveler's wife, which is probably a good inclination into why the movie is titled The Time Traveler's Wife. This movie reminds me of such films like Titanic and and Pearl Harbor. Both of those films took interesting and dramatic occurrences in history and made them into crappy love stories. Now, while the story of a man who travels through time isn't a dramatic or interesting occurrence in history, it is an interesting concept turned into yet another crappy love story.

The women will definitely love this movie and the guys will dread it. The overdose of romance just drives it into the ground almost. I do enjoy the occasional romantic movie but this one was just too much for me. If romance in a movie were a drug this movie would have killed me. If you like romantic movies or are a huge fan of the Lifetime or Hallmark channels then this is the movie for you. However for me, it didn't quite make the cut, which is why I give The Time Traveler's Wife 5 Uncontrollable Jumps Through Time out of 10