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d. Robert Schwentke; pr. Dede Gardner, Nick Wechsler; scr. Bruce Joel Rubin; nvl. Audrey Niffenegger; ph. Florian Ballhaus; ed. Thom Noble; m. Mychael Danna; cast. Eric Bana, Rachel Mcadams, Arliss Howard, Brooklynn Proulx, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean (107 mins)

TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE FACTS: Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston bought the movie rights to Audrey Niffenegger's novel before it was released to the public and although their decision made headlines, the book quickly became a bestseller; Eric Bana went immediately from this to his role as the villain in Star Trek for which he had to shave his head thus delaying the release of Time Traveler's Wife for almost a year when the re-shoots needed had to wait for the actor's hair to grow back; Scrolling News Ticker by Mioplanet;

a perfectly achieved un-sentimentalized contemporary tear-jerker, allusive to such modern romantic cinema classics as Somewhere in Time and Ghost (the previous hit by The Time Traveller’s Wife screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin before he segued into the bizarre exploration of near-death psychology in Jacob’s Ladder). Iis a delightful entertainment, rich and evocative in its assessment of human inter-personal need and romantic longing; and savvy in its assessment of such issues as child-rearing and the dilemmas involved in reaching the decision to have a vasectomy within a loving marriage in which the wife longs to be a mother.

As its title indicates, the film involves time travel. A man (played by Australian Eric Bana in a role proving the actor a captivating romantic lead) has a genetic anomaly that in effect causes him to be what controversial novelist Kurt Vonnegut a generation earlier in his time-travel novel Slaughterhouse Five termed “unstuck in time”. In his present incarnation he is a special collections librarian though is prone to disappear and travel back in time. He has little control over these temporal “fits”, which leave him naked and defenceless on arrival in the other time, whereupon he must fend for himself by stealing clothes and fleeing aggression, left to wander the city alone.

One day in his library he is approached by a young woman (Rachel McAdams) who recognizes him – she tells him that he has appeared to her when she was a child and told her that they would one day meet: having known and idolized him since she was a child, she believes wholly that she will one day marry him although at this point in his present life, this is the first time they have met.

And there is a certain joy here as McAdams discovers Bana as a young man. Though she has loved him since a child – and as a child – seeing him for the first time as a peer enables her love to deepen and blossom. In a way she feels destined to be with him and screenwriter Rubin examines her feelings so that Bana is essentially depicted through her point of view after first being established as a lone time-traveller who can journey back and forth, from the death of his mother to the childhood of his future wife, a dilemma which places a tremendous burden on him.

It’s a time-travel paradox of course and such tales are riddled with them – such, after all is the delight of the genre – and scripter Rubin takes some time and care to explain the relative rules in this particular time-travel fantasy: all perfectly reasonable within the willing suspension of disbelief necessary for involvement in fantasy. Within the time-travel structure – which essentially balances the “present” relationship between Bana and McAdams with Bana’s trips back to McAdams as a child as well as some of his more uncontrollable travel experiences – the film maintains a capable and convincing depiction of two people falling in love, Rubin using the time-travel allegory to question such Romantic ideals (one hesitates to use the word “clichés” lest it sound cynical) as first love, true love and that question all lovers wonder as to whether they are somehow destined to be together. In this the issue of choice for McAdams is an interesting one: a human being of free will, has she a true choice in a romantic relationship created for her by this bizarre destiny?

Such questions are raised throughout The Time Traveller’s Wife, the film being as much about McAdams as it is Bana.

Finding herself married to a man who can instantly disappear and not return for some time (days or weeks) is something of a barrier for her plans to raise children, further complicated by the couple’s concerns over whether Bana’s genetic anomaly will be passed on to any offspring, a situation which makes Bana contemplate a vasectomy, essentially to prevent his condition being inherited. Again, this issue, which faces many men entering midlife (Bana’s character is in his late 30s for much of the film) is handled with care and sensitivity to all concerned and results in some of the film’s most tenderly humanist moments. Indeed, although the film posits a fantasy premise, it is grounded in issues which face all couples – the script raising such issues as love, co-dependency and familial expectation.

As a successor to Rubin’s previous romantic film phenomenon Ghost, The Time Traveller’s Wife evidences a deeper maturity, doing away with the comedy and the feel-good populism that endeared Ghost to so many and replacing it with a genuinely heartfelt romantic complexity that makes the film this generation’s finest Hollywood romance. Whether it will enter into the popular idiom as easily as Ghost, let alone elevate Bana to heartthrob status as Ghost did to its leading man Patrick Swayze, remains to be seen. However, in a time where the populist response to issues facing those seeking a long-term commitment and fulfilment is dictated by such Hollywood dross as the hit self-help bestseller adaptation He’s Just Not That Into You, The Time Traveller’s Wife evidences a rare maturity and for it’s complexity alone is a film to be treasured.

Indeed, there’s a telling moment in the film where Bana admits to McAdams that until meeting her he was determined to never become emotionally attached to anything that requires a sustained commitment, to become emotionally or otherwise involved with someone or something that he could not stand to lose (even his relationship to his father is strained, let alone any friendships).

A loner with a somewhat rugged appearance (slightly unshaven, with what Bana’s fellow Aussies would refer to as a “three day growth”) his emotional vulnerability, tenderness and strength make him an unusually attractive figure as he responds to the challenges and responsibilities of a loving relationship within his personal circumstance, his needs balanced against McAdams’ for a complex assessment of love and emotional bonding within the limits of inter-personal fulfilment offered individuals who must weight their personal expectations against the romantic and often idealized socialization they have been offered (destined?) on which to base such expectations.

With a brilliantly thought out structure, conveying complex time shifts and ideological ironies (Bana’s ultimate fate) The Time Traveller’s Wife is Hollywood’s most complex assessment of romantic longing to emerge within the constraints of fantasy-based genre cinema. As a time-travel romance it ranks with the best of this minimally explored genre in Somewhere in Time and Time after Time (a film in which the lead actors met, fell in love and married as they worked on the movie). Yet, it’s allusions to Vonnegut’s notion of a man “unstuck in time” also ally it to the deeper, darker examinations of the human need for constancy, dependability and fulfilment within a family-based, essentially Patriarchal socialization that underlies such as Slaughterhouse Five. Both within these traditions and as a film in its own right, The Time Traveller’s Wife is a sheer delight.