Based on the popular novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveller’s Wife is a 2009 movie starring Eric Banna and Rachel McAdams in the lead. The movie, although falls in the science fiction genre due to Henry’s capabilities of time travel which is more of a curse than a boon, in the heart of it the story is that of a romance between two couples over the years.
Even though all relationships are marred with problems, theirs’ is a notch higher than the rest because of Henry’s incapability to stay in one place which causes the couple to constantly fall out of sync with one another.
Where Can I Watch the Movie? Is it available on Netflix, Hulu, Prime, or HBO?
The movie had a theatrical release in 2009. In 2022 you can watch it on your cable television. The movie is also available for streaming on HBO Max at a subscription rate. The movie is also available on rent on Amazon Prime, AppleTV, VUDU Fandango, Google Play and Movies, YouTube, iTunes, and Microsoft at a minimum rate of $3.99 and you can purchase the same on all the above-mentioned platforms at a rate of $12.99. Sadly the movie is not available on platforms like Netflix and Hulu.
What to Know Before watching?
The Time Traveller’s Wife, in spite of being science fiction, is a romantic movie at its core. The movie follows the story of a young Claire who meets an adult Henry who keeps pursuing her. The two then fall in love and marry each other. Any relationship anyway has troubles, now imagine if your husband is diagnosed with a rare ability to Time travel, something he doesn’t even have control over.
The couple falls in and out of sync as Henry keeps disappearing from important events only to land up in another from a different time. The movie portrays the two characters desperately clinging to their relationships trying to make it work because in their hearts they do love each other the most.
The Positive and Negative Elements
The movie makes a positive mark in the dealing of relationships. In spite of all the challenges, Claire and Henry never stop loving each other. If anything it keeps growing with time. Things get rough with every reappearing of Henry but they still manage to fall back in place.
The film establishes the idea of hope and courage and faithfulness in marital relationships. The film also provides for warm family values, that are projected through Henry’s relationship with his dad and his daughter. The responsible relationship of Henry is enforced not just in his role as a father but also as a navigator of the future.
However, there are a few negative elements as well. Henry’s uncalled and uncertain time travels often cause him to take unethical grounds. Since when he time travels he appears at another time naked and penniless. This has often caused him to break into homes, cars and one time even steal a man’s wallet.
Henry claims that he never uses his knowledge of the future for his personal benefit. He still buys Clara that winning lottery ticket of $5 million. He even takes a look into Clara’s journal without her permission on the excuse that it would help him to catch up with time.
The Book Vs The Movie
The book has a more mature handling of the relationships and the problems that come with them. Naturally, with a time barrier, a movie would have to look past all of that if they want to finish the whole story on screen. The book depicts the chemistry between the leads more effectively than in the movie.
This is actually one of their biggest plus points because it makes one overlook the otherwise confusing plotline. Other than this, the movie does a very mediocre attempt at adaptation leaving out chunks of the novel. This makes the anyway confusing plotline even more confusing. If you are a reader, read the book before watching the movie and not have a hard time understanding it.
