film review: the time traveler's wife
Aug. 20th, 2009 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
norwegianwood
Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Year: 2009
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Seen on: August 2009
Rating: ★★★★★
My thoughts: I loved it. I thought what made it great and interesting was that it was different from the book. Some scenes have been changed, some (many, actually) have been excluded, and I can understand why. It's a very dense book, and it would have made such a long film if they had left everything in it. Of course, there are a few scenes that I would have loved to have seen acted out on screen, and I would have rather had the ending a little bit different, but on the whole I thought it was very well done.
Rachel McAdams was perfect in her role and I loved her entrance, which was absolutely adorable. You see that woman acting and it makes you want to smile, you just can't help it. I cried a few times as well, not so much at the end but more around the middle of the film... But it's so hard to write a review of this film without writing about specific scenes, so I'm going to put the rest of the entry in a cut, as it will contain spoilers... So don't read if you don't want to know anything!
This film really made me think about the characters, and gave the book a completely different light, making them quite different from each other. I've always thought that the Harry of the book was a bit of a selfish character, considering the way he becomes around the middle of the book and the way he makes her wait until the end, by telling her that he would come to visit her again. Also, I've always thought that the fact that they've included the whole story about Claire's roommate loving her was to give relevance to how her life could have been like if Harry hadn't intruded... Especially because her roommate turns out to be a pretty good character. Because if you think about it, what's so special about Harry if it wasn't for the time traveling? Even his dad asks him "who would want you?", and after all I think he's just a pretty normal guy, who has been made so much better than what he is in Claire's eyes because she met him when she was so young...
That's the way I have always seen it and what I've liked so much about the book, but the Henry in the film is much less selfish.He doesn't tell Claire that he would have gone to see her because he doesn't want her to wait for him, he's so nice from the beginning to the end and he behaves in such a perfect way that you really do feel bad for both of them in the end.
Also, it made me think about the way Henry and Alba are connected, as they both lost their parents pretty young and because of something connected with time travel, which makes the whole thing a sort of a circle :)
They changed Claire's first time with her first kiss, and it's understandable, but I still wish they hadn't changed that. Also, I would have liked to see more of Claire's relationship with her parents, and most of all, of Henry's dad, who I really liked as a character in the book :) The whole story with Henry's other woman was sort of dark but also really good in the book, and I wish they had shown a little more that Claire is sometimes much more attracted to the older Henry than to the 'current' version of him... And of course, there's the ending. I liked the idea of the message they wanted to give, but my favourite scene in the book is the one of the older Claire who finally meets Henry, so I wish that had happened... Even without that scene, though, it would have been so much better if Henry had disappeared after seeing Alba, before Claire got there, as that's more or less what happens in the book...
But on the whole, I really liked it and it really made me think. It really wasn't an easy film to make and I think they managed to do a great job with it! Even the fact that there are such mixed opinions of it proves it :)
Rachel McAdams was perfect in her role and I loved her entrance, which was absolutely adorable. You see that woman acting and it makes you want to smile, you just can't help it. I cried a few times as well, not so much at the end but more around the middle of the film... But it's so hard to write a review of this film without writing about specific scenes, so I'm going to put the rest of the entry in a cut, as it will contain spoilers... So don't read if you don't want to know anything!
This film really made me think about the characters, and gave the book a completely different light, making them quite different from each other. I've always thought that the Harry of the book was a bit of a selfish character, considering the way he becomes around the middle of the book and the way he makes her wait until the end, by telling her that he would come to visit her again. Also, I've always thought that the fact that they've included the whole story about Claire's roommate loving her was to give relevance to how her life could have been like if Harry hadn't intruded... Especially because her roommate turns out to be a pretty good character. Because if you think about it, what's so special about Harry if it wasn't for the time traveling? Even his dad asks him "who would want you?", and after all I think he's just a pretty normal guy, who has been made so much better than what he is in Claire's eyes because she met him when she was so young...
That's the way I have always seen it and what I've liked so much about the book, but the Henry in the film is much less selfish.He doesn't tell Claire that he would have gone to see her because he doesn't want her to wait for him, he's so nice from the beginning to the end and he behaves in such a perfect way that you really do feel bad for both of them in the end.
Also, it made me think about the way Henry and Alba are connected, as they both lost their parents pretty young and because of something connected with time travel, which makes the whole thing a sort of a circle :)
They changed Claire's first time with her first kiss, and it's understandable, but I still wish they hadn't changed that. Also, I would have liked to see more of Claire's relationship with her parents, and most of all, of Henry's dad, who I really liked as a character in the book :) The whole story with Henry's other woman was sort of dark but also really good in the book, and I wish they had shown a little more that Claire is sometimes much more attracted to the older Henry than to the 'current' version of him... And of course, there's the ending. I liked the idea of the message they wanted to give, but my favourite scene in the book is the one of the older Claire who finally meets Henry, so I wish that had happened... Even without that scene, though, it would have been so much better if Henry had disappeared after seeing Alba, before Claire got there, as that's more or less what happens in the book...
But on the whole, I really liked it and it really made me think. It really wasn't an easy film to make and I think they managed to do a great job with it! Even the fact that there are such mixed opinions of it proves it :)