The Time Traveler's Wife
Aug. 20th, 2009 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tartysuzThis is an odd time-travel movie, one that pretty much removes all consideration of the mechanics of time travel. One of the characters actually says that the process is more like magic.
I think that's fine. Not every time travel movie needs to refer to hard science. The emphasis in this movie is on the metaphor. It calls to mind the Taoist notion that you can never step into the same river twice.
In that respect, I liked how this movie concretized the notion of revisiting your past. I've had a lot of occasion to do that of late. Watching this movie, I thought of all the times in recent months that I've revisited myself at different ages interacting with Gilbert at different ages. And when I talk about these meetings or incidents, it's not really like reliving them.
For example, when I recall my earliest memory of meeting Gilbert, I'm doing so as a 44-year-old looking back at my 19-year-old self meeting the 22-year-old version of a man I knew for almost 26 years after that. I have impressions of the 22-year-old Gilbert, but he comes with 26 years worth of footnotes, citations and other asterisked material. So does my 19-year-old self.
This is essential what happens in The Time Traveler's Wife. When Clare "first meets" the time-travelling Henry, she's 18, but she knows all about this meeting because he's told her about it at the various times he, as an older man, went back and visited her in a meadow from the time she was six years old. So she's completely prepared for how she would respond -- but Henry isn't. He doesn't know that his older self had been going back in time to prepare Clare for this "first" meeting.
Their self-memories are not in sync, much as my self-memory that meets the Gilbert of 26 years ago is conscious that I'm remembering the meeting instead of just meeting, while the Gilbert in the memory has no clue of a future me.
But there's a hole in this story. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if they were addressed in the source material. But in the movie, several big questions are articulated, but never answered.
First, why doesn't Henry go back in time to save his mother from being killed in the car accident that seems to catalyzed his time travelling ability? Its not because Henry can't change things -- he uses his time-travelling ability to win Clare $5 million in a pick-number lottery. It seems to be more of a case that he doesn't want to change things. For example, he can't control his time-travel ability. But when he learns from his future, time-travelling daughter, Alba, that all he has to do to stay in a time period is to sing, he says, "I can't sing." He doesn't even try. So maybe he can't get close to the car accident because he can't "go there" emotionally. Perhaps he doesn't want to change the event that defines him. I can't say that any of this is supported, or even strongly indicated by the text. But Henry himself brings up these questions, and even if he's not in a hurry to answer them, I'd like to know.
Second, why does he keep going back to the meadow to see Young Clare? With no ability to control when he travels, and little ability to control where he goes, he finds himself drawn to the meadow, and he wants to know why. Obviously, he has an emotional attraction to the place, since Clare is there. But if that's the reason, why does Henry think this is a mystery Again, no follow up.
Third, did Clare have any choice but to fall in love with Henry? She raises this during an argument. We gather that she first meets Henry when she's an 18-year-old art student and he's a library assistant. So did Henry purposely go back to her six-year-old self to reinforce her attraction to him? Was he going back to the meadow to, what, groom her? It's creepy when you think about it.
Random Notes:
The young Henry is played by Alex Ferris, who played the young Davis Bloome on Smallville and the six-year-old Sam Winchester on Supernatural. This kid is good. One day he will grow up and play a character that he has all to himself!
Clare is played the up-and-coming Canadian movie star Rachel McAdams, and Clare's mother is played by the great Canadian stage actor Fiona Reid. Yay, Fiona!
Broken Social Scene is the out-of-place wedding band that plays a sad-boy version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as the opening waltz. At the screening I attended, exactly one person (*ahem*) laughed at this. (How can you be a sadder-boy than Joy Division? You take out the dance beat.)
I think that's fine. Not every time travel movie needs to refer to hard science. The emphasis in this movie is on the metaphor. It calls to mind the Taoist notion that you can never step into the same river twice.
In that respect, I liked how this movie concretized the notion of revisiting your past. I've had a lot of occasion to do that of late. Watching this movie, I thought of all the times in recent months that I've revisited myself at different ages interacting with Gilbert at different ages. And when I talk about these meetings or incidents, it's not really like reliving them.
For example, when I recall my earliest memory of meeting Gilbert, I'm doing so as a 44-year-old looking back at my 19-year-old self meeting the 22-year-old version of a man I knew for almost 26 years after that. I have impressions of the 22-year-old Gilbert, but he comes with 26 years worth of footnotes, citations and other asterisked material. So does my 19-year-old self.
This is essential what happens in The Time Traveler's Wife. When Clare "first meets" the time-travelling Henry, she's 18, but she knows all about this meeting because he's told her about it at the various times he, as an older man, went back and visited her in a meadow from the time she was six years old. So she's completely prepared for how she would respond -- but Henry isn't. He doesn't know that his older self had been going back in time to prepare Clare for this "first" meeting.
Their self-memories are not in sync, much as my self-memory that meets the Gilbert of 26 years ago is conscious that I'm remembering the meeting instead of just meeting, while the Gilbert in the memory has no clue of a future me.
But there's a hole in this story. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if they were addressed in the source material. But in the movie, several big questions are articulated, but never answered.
First, why doesn't Henry go back in time to save his mother from being killed in the car accident that seems to catalyzed his time travelling ability? Its not because Henry can't change things -- he uses his time-travelling ability to win Clare $5 million in a pick-number lottery. It seems to be more of a case that he doesn't want to change things. For example, he can't control his time-travel ability. But when he learns from his future, time-travelling daughter, Alba, that all he has to do to stay in a time period is to sing, he says, "I can't sing." He doesn't even try. So maybe he can't get close to the car accident because he can't "go there" emotionally. Perhaps he doesn't want to change the event that defines him. I can't say that any of this is supported, or even strongly indicated by the text. But Henry himself brings up these questions, and even if he's not in a hurry to answer them, I'd like to know.
Second, why does he keep going back to the meadow to see Young Clare? With no ability to control when he travels, and little ability to control where he goes, he finds himself drawn to the meadow, and he wants to know why. Obviously, he has an emotional attraction to the place, since Clare is there. But if that's the reason, why does Henry think this is a mystery Again, no follow up.
Third, did Clare have any choice but to fall in love with Henry? She raises this during an argument. We gather that she first meets Henry when she's an 18-year-old art student and he's a library assistant. So did Henry purposely go back to her six-year-old self to reinforce her attraction to him? Was he going back to the meadow to, what, groom her? It's creepy when you think about it.
Random Notes:
The young Henry is played by Alex Ferris, who played the young Davis Bloome on Smallville and the six-year-old Sam Winchester on Supernatural. This kid is good. One day he will grow up and play a character that he has all to himself!
Clare is played the up-and-coming Canadian movie star Rachel McAdams, and Clare's mother is played by the great Canadian stage actor Fiona Reid. Yay, Fiona!
Broken Social Scene is the out-of-place wedding band that plays a sad-boy version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as the opening waltz. At the screening I attended, exactly one person (*ahem*) laughed at this. (How can you be a sadder-boy than Joy Division? You take out the dance beat.)
