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The Time Traveler's Wife
Aug. 20th, 2009 12:19 amThis 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.
( There's a hole in this movie: spoilers )
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.
( There's a hole in this movie: spoilers )
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.)
