The Time Traveler's Wife

i love books and i'm awfully loyal and possessive of my favourite books; these points are more than enough for me to have negative disposition towards movie that are based on books because more often than not these movies are so drastically changed and made so differently that they figuratively killed the beautifully written story that the authors have carved. it is definitely not right for one to judge something that they haven't watch but i'm pretty sure that most book lovers would have the same inclination as me especially if the movie is based on their all time favourite book.

hence, with prejudice in my mind and my judgmental glasses up, i usher the chinese new year by watching the time traveler's wife. i had expected it to be just another one of hollywood's horrible and failed attempt at trying to remake a bestseller into a blockbuster; it was suppose to be another badly made 107minutes movie to pass my time and yet at the end of that 1 hour and 47 minutes, i'm a transformed person and not in any way that i have envisage because i fell in love with the movie — if not more than the book than as much.

perhaps the reason i love this movie is because other than the gist of the book the rest of the details of it have been almost completely wiped clean from my memory as the last time i set my eyes and mind on the book was three years back but nonetheless, the screenwriter and director had achieved their goal: distinguishing the movie from the book and yet maintaining the book's magical quality.

the time traveler's wife is a story that is filled with joy, sorrows and challenges as the one thing that brought henry and clare together in the first place is slowly clawing its way into their relationship.

the chemistry between the casts was pretty solid too with eric bana as henry and rachel mcadams as clare. eric whom i'll always remember as king henry viii from the other boleyn girl did a good job in portraying henry although his portrayal as the younger henry seems a bit awkward at first but as the movie gradually moves forward he too fell in ease with his role. when rachel mcadams first came into the movie, i took an instant dislike toward her and felt that she doesn't suit to carry out the role of clare but then again i was proved wrong. if my memory serves me right the book clare was described more of a mellow and quiet beauty and the book henry can be interpreted as a geeky and specky guy but as you can see in the movie, clare was shy and fiery and henry was definitely the epitome of a hunk. either way, both eric and rachel carried out the roles of henry and clare convincingly.

it can be challenging to adapt this book into a movie due to the confusing timeline and the different narrative which is why i have to applaud screenwriter and director again for narrowing down the scope; they decided to focus on henry and clare's love story and omit out the unrelated rest which is a good move as it directs the audience attention.

i absolutely abhor it whenever the ending of a book is changed in the movie, however in this case i accept it as it synchronize really well with the story line. it was a good ending and i would say on par with the ending that audrey niffenegger wrote.

there were more than one scene in which it made me bawled my eyes out and for that alone i shall rate this movie a smashing 8/10.