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Time Traveler's Wife
EMAILPRINTNew Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 31 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance | Sci-fi
Written by: Bruce Joel Rubin
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 14, 2009
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for thematic elements, brief disturbing images, nudity and sexuality
Starring Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard, and Ron Livingston
Clare has been in love with Henry her entire life. She believes they are destined to be together, even though she never knows when they will be separated: Henry is a time traveler--cursed with a rare genetic anomaly that causes him to live his life on a shifting timeline, skipping back and forth through the years with no control. Despite the fact that Henry's travels force them apart with no warning, and never knowing when they will be reunited, Clare desperately tries to build a life with her one true love. (Warner Bros.)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Gracefully directed by Robert Schwentke, the film has a perfect performance by Bana, rangy and haunted, never at home in his body.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It would really help to get into the right frame of mind before seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, because viewed from some angles - maybe most angles - the movie is ridiculous.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The book is richer, but this is a solid, endearing telling of the same essential story, and is well worth the price of admission for those who appreciate romantic fantasy.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The movie is slightly more sappy, and the characters are necessarily less fleshed out than they are in Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling novel, but neither shortcoming detracts from the film's appeal.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
May not make a lick of sense, but it does make for fairly irresistible nonsense.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
What makes The Time Traveler's Wife work as drama, though, and certainly better than it might have, is an unhesitating emotional commitment on the part of the actors (and Schwentke).
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Bana and McAdams are sweet together, with matching dimples and starry eyes, and we grow eager to see them remain in the same place. In the end, that's all there is to the movie, really. It's a time-travel fantasy in search of a cozy love seat.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The warmth of the actors makes it surprisingly tender, considering the premise that is blatantly absurd. If you allow yourself to think for one moment of the paradoxes, contradictions and logical difficulties involved, you will be lost. The movie supports no objective thought.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
At its best, The Time Traveler’s Wife does suggest the preciousness of a life that’s too often beyond our control. At its worst, it’s more than a little nuts.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
German-born director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") keep things moving briskly enough so that the leaps in time mostly obscure the leaps in logic.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
It's soppy enough to suit the requirements of the weepie genre...But the movie also has an aching solidity that allows you to surrender to its cuddly-creepy feelings without hating yourself in the morning.
Read Full Review >Empire Liz Beardsworth
Competent and well-cast, but it crams too much into the runtime and loses the elegance of the novel.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin won an Oscar for "Ghost" (1990), a pleasant, moderately thoughtful weepie that this movie closely resembles.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
“Caution: Contents may induce brain bleed.” That is, if you think too hard on the logic and mechanics of its time-travel conceit.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
There's something curiously off about The Time Traveler's Wife.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Although it's supposed to be supremely romantic, there's no daring in it, no go-for-broke passion. It's a nice little movie about romantic compulsion, just big enough to fit in a teacup.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The Time Traveler's Wife slips the romance cards into a stacked deck – read 'em if you will, but no need to weep.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
When the film's fate rests on the alchemy of its stars, you really don't want to get that wrong. But here, chemistry is a problem, and it proves a significant one.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A syrupy and extraordinarily ridiculous adaptation.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The emotions and crises feel pre-sanded, smooth to the point of blandness.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It might be a solid hook if we thought their love was grand. Instead, it's kind of creepy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The story is still mostly fabulous, and its novelty helps carry the film, but this still comes across like a poor high-school stage version: sincere and kind of sweet, but endlessly clumsy.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Often ridiculous, awkward, unsatisfying and dour melodramatic adaptation.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
Will disappoint anyone looking for transport from a movie--being a time traveler's wife, it turns out, is mostly a drag.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
The movie moves at such an agonizingly stately pace that by the end, side effects be damned, Henry's time-traveling gene starts to look mighty appealing.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The movie doesn't really begin or end. Whether the lights have just gone down or the credits have begun to roll, things are pretty much the same for Henry.
Read Full Review >NPR Jeannette Catsoulis
McAdams glows, as always, but Bana looks drained: I guess all that time-shifting leaves its mark on the complexion as well as the soul.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
I'd watch the vibrant Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in anything, but The Time Traveler's Wife is pushing it.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
The cozy sentimentality in The Time Traveler's Wife is the only thing that grounds it. Mostly it's just featherheaded.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
They miss by a mile – or should I say, a light-year.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 31 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Billy S gave it a5:
Eric Bana travels back and forth from time to time in his life over and over and over again, I'd like to travel back to right before I paid for the ticket! Seriously.
kg m gave it a5:
Who wouldn’t wish for this type of endless, timeless love? Both parties appear to be perfect w. no foibles whatsoever. Sure, he disappears because of some ‘time-traveling’ weirdness but he only has eyes for hers and she only has eyes for him. Temptation never enters the picture. Aw, sweet, sweet romance.
fantasy gave it an8:
This is a feel good movie with no beginning and no end. You only hope some heads or tails can be made of the time traveling but in the end it is simply a love story about blind love and caring. There was so much more that coud have been explained but it is the same scene repeated forever.
Hailey L gave it a2:
I'll admit right off the bat that I am biased because I read and loved the book 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. So, going into the movie my expectations were high. And, my expectations were crushed without remorse by this horrid film. The only saving grace was Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana as lead characters. Both fabulous actors, bound to draw attention. However, the film lacked character depth and development. I felt no connection with the love story that was supposed to be unfolding before my eyes. And, to my complete dismay, the best parts of the book were left out or completely changed! The screenwriters took a beautifully written novel, and trashed every wonderful thing about it. Too bad. My recommendation: Save your money.
John E. gave it a0:
I enjoy good movies weather they are chick flicks or horror films. Since this was based upon a book I came in with high hopes, but sadly enough this film made absolutely no sense at all. It was purposefully manipulative to your emotions, and had nothing to really bight your teeth into. This film made me very angry, why would anyone make this movie it sucks. In the sea of good romantic movies out there this one is a rock at the bottom of the Marianas trench.
vinipushka 010 gave it a7:
True, it's probably a movie you'd take your girfriend/s to, but it's a bit more than just that. You may find you walk away happy you gave it a chance.
Aaron M gave it an8:
People who have read the book will forgive all the things the movie doesn't go into detail explaining, and will love the movie for what it really is - a heartfelt and enduring story of a woman who is destined to love a troubled guy who time travels. So simply put, read the book first and love the movie or don't.
