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Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

One obnoxious romance
By SHAULA CLARK  |  August 19, 2009
1.0 1.0 Stars

 

Long a staple of sci-fi, time travel makes its chick-flick debut in Robert Schwentke's adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel. Aside from a different ending, the film sticks to the book in its chronicle of Henry (Eric Bana), a man unstuck in time, and his true love, Clare (Rachel McAdams). But in its scramble to master the mind-bending plot, TTTW loses its soul.

This comes off as a story about a man who drops buck-naked into a little girl's backyard to groom her to be his future wife. It's also about a woman so determined to birth a genetically addled child, she'll harvest "chrono-impaired" sperm from her vasectomized husband's younger self. (Clare's fine with time travel, but at the mere mention of adoption, she wails, "Why can't I just have a normal life?!")

Add to that the most absurd DNA-related malarkey since Elves (in which Nazis kidnap Santa's helpers to create a master race) and you've got one obnoxious romance.

Related: Review: Star Trek, Review: Observe and Report, Review: Whatever Works, More more >
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ARTICLES BY SHAULA CLARK
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    Long a staple of sci-fi, time travel makes its chick-flick debut in Robert Schwentke's adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel.
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 See all articles by: SHAULA CLARK

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