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On the Web Wed Aug 19 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife: Movie & Possible TV Show
After unexpectedly seeing The Time Traveler's Wife this weekend (I was really planning on waiting until the DVD release, but found myself at the theater with a friend trying to decide on a movie for the afternoon), I find this review of the movie fitting: Not Bad. Which is to say, not as horrible as I was expecting it to be, but not great either. It was a passable, bare-bones version of a fantastic book, told in a far more linear manner, which I don't think was necessarily beneficial. Having said that, I'm forced to think back on my lit theory class where we learned that one of the bases of feminist theory is the idea that men tell stories linearly - going down a straight line until they come to a point, not unlike certain parts of their bodies - while women tell stories circularly - going around and around (think of Mrs. Dalloway for a prime example). I'm not much of a proponent of that particular theory, but it strikes me that it does seem applicable here, what with the book written in a circular manner by a woman and the movie directed in a linear manner by a man. In a story about time travel, the circularity is just more interesting. I won't review the movie in depth (I'll let our movie columnist Steve do that here, where he hits nicely on its faults and attributes), but I will say that, unlike Steve, I was emotionally touched. Ridiculously so. I have never cried during a movie while watching it in the theater (and only once before in front of another person at all), but halfway through I remembered exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to happen and I must admit that I shed some tears. I really think that had much more to do with having read the book, but in any case, that movie is freakin' sad. And while it's not nearly as great as its progenitor, it's not bad either.
In other news, the novel may be appearing as a TV show in the not too distant future.
Maria Carlson / August 20, 2009 10:52 PM
I thought this was the best, most interesting movie review I've read in a long time.