The Time Traveller's Wife: Do Watch

The title of the movie is a little misgiving, for it is not a sci-fi movie, and might raise doubts in the minds of the viewers, who would otherwise enjoy a simple and warm love story. I went for it because of Eric Bana; a charming fellow, I think the next Richard Gere. Eric is a time traveller, by a genetic disorder and travels through time without his own volition. And it happens to him anywhere; without caution. He meets his future wife, played by Rachel McAdams (from the acclaimed ‘The Notebook’), when she’s just 6 years old and he goes back to her again and again. She starts to love him until they eventually meet in real.

The only problem in their love is Eric’s sudden disappearances. For once he’s there and then he’s not. He has no control over where he goes or what time period he goes to. To make matters worse when he travels his clothes get left behind and he has to then steal clothes, from wherever he lands, before he gets noticed. Rachel on her part is keen to continue in the relationship even with all the shortcomings that comes with the constant disappearance of the person you love; sometime two weeks at a stretch. Eventually they get married and look forward to having a baby; which unfortunately is suffering from the same disorder and starts travelling from the womb, leading to multiple miscarriages. A disheartened Eric gets a vasectomy done because of the fear of a similar vagabond life for the baby. Not undone by this betrayal Rachel gets pregnant when once Eric comes to visit her from the past. One day Eric meets his daughter, in the future, and then comforts Rachel that this time they are going to have the baby and that it’s a girl. The story takes a turn when Eric, from the future, lands in the house with a bullet wound, where the present day Eric and Rachel are shocked to see him. I am not going to give out the completely story to spoil it for the people who would want to watch it.

If you try to analyse the movie, through the microscope of time travelling technicalities, there might be a lot of shortcomings wriggling about. But then as I said in the beginning, it’s not a sci-fi movie. It’s a love story under difficult circumstances and how it is not confined to the boundaries of time; rather permeates it and brings to the fore a kind of love which overlooks human frailties and weaknesses. I think it’s surreal to know your future partner from when you are a child and the sense of really spending a complete life time with him or her.

Again, coming back to the title, I would say it would have been unfair if the title was just ‘The Time Traveller’, for I think it’s not the time traveller but the wife who comes about having supernatural abilities of accepting someone with such a failing, without guilt or reproach. As much as the movie is about Eric’s disappearances, so it is about Rachel’s sense of unvarying love; Eric fights to gain control over his disability but Rachel is at peace with the uncertainty and finally Eric’s aversion about himself reflects in his unwillingness for a similar child but Rachel’s finds no qualms in expecting the baby for the same reasons she accepted her man. Great performance by both the actors, though Eric looked a little restrained. He is surely bound for the Oscars and she the next Julia Roberts. Maybe I would not have registered such strong emotions from this movie if I were not married. So rightly named, ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’. Do watch.