Many lovers of unusual films created at the intersection of fantasy, science fiction and adventure are well acquainted with the film "Time Traveler's Wife ." The film received very mixed reviews, but still he gathered his audience of fans among venerable critics, as well as among ordinary viewers. That is why watching a movie, at least in order to form their own opinion about it, will be useful to every connoisseur.
Briefly about the plot
To begin with, it’s worth telling briefly about the plot of the film “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. The main character was Henry Detemble, born in 1963. No one could have thought that he was suffering from an extremely rare disease - chronone deficiency. However, it was this disease that saved his life. At the age of five, Henry gets into a car accident, but does not die as he should, but is transferred to another time. From this begins the journey of a lifetime. Henry moves forward and backward. Most often this happens in moments of stress or danger. Moreover, each time it turns out to be completely naked, and the hero does not know the place where he will go. As a result, he has to learn various skills in order to survive and simply not become a victim of circumstances. Henry is forced to learn how to break open locks, fight well, and even empty the pockets of casual passers-by.
But everything changes when he meets a twenty-year-old girl named Claire in 1991. Surprisingly, it turns out that she already knows him perfectly. Moreover, Claire has known him since childhood! How can it be?
The answer appears pretty soon. Immediately after meeting Henry makes a series of journeys into the past, where he meets five-year-old Claire. Here he not only communicates with her, but also reveals his secret by dictating a list of dates and places where he will appear in the coming years. As a result, whenever and wherever he appears, Claire always meets him with food and clothing so that the traveler no longer has to hide.
Moreover, soon they fall in love and are going to get married. But can such relationships, stretched out over time, lead to something good? Watch the movie to find out the answer to this question.
What is the film based on?
Not all movie fans know that there is a book called The Time Traveler’s Wife. She received even better reviews than the film adaptation.
The book was published in 2003. But by this time, the rights to the film adaptation had already been bought by the production company Plan B Entertainment (headed by Brad Pete and Jennifer Aniston) together with New Line Cinema.
As Audrey Niffenegger later admitted, she dreamed of seeing her book filmed, but at the same time she was frankly afraid that the scriptwriters would distort the main idea, greatly change the course of events and the plot.
Differences from the book
The film “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, released in 2009, received very mixed reviews - some experts believed that the book, in principle, was not worthy of an adaptation. Other critics claim that the film, like the book, turned out great. Well, everyone can have their own opinion on this matter. It is worth noting only that the scriptwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, who was involved in the adaptation of the book, took the source material very seriously and made relatively few corrections, and they did not have too much influence on the development of the plot.
Several spoilers will follow, so viewers who are just about to watch a movie or read a book will find it useful to skip this section. Those who know how the film “The Time Traveler's Wife” ended will be interested in learning about the differences.
The most serious departure of the film from the book was Henry's wound. In the film, he froze one leg and was forced to undergo a long recovery procedure, spending several months in a wheelchair. His book prototype was much less fortunate. He froze both legs, as a result of which they had to be amputated.
In the film, Henry meets Claire for the last time, saying that they are no longer destined to meet. This meeting was not in the book - the traveler simply left a letter with a message to his faithful wife.
Finally, in the film, the last meeting (after the death of Henry from a bullet wound) took place four years after the death. At that time, the hero was 39 years old, and Claire was even younger. In the book, the moment turned out to be, perhaps, more tragic and touching. After all, Henry was destined for the last time to see his beloved many years after his death. At that time he was 43 years old, and Claire - 82.
The rest of the film, as already mentioned, turned out to be very close to the book - even the most ardent admirers of the work recognize this.
Main characters
Now let's talk about the actors of the film "Time Traveler's Wife".
The role of the traveler himself - Henry Detemble - was performed by the popular actor Eric Bana. He is well familiar to viewers from such films as Black Hawk, Troy, Star Trek, Hannah. The Perfect Weapon and, of course, The Hulk, where he played the main role - Bruce Banner himself and, accordingly, the Hulk .
The faithful wife, who never knew when her husband would completely melt in the air, was perfectly able to translate the Canadian actress Rachel McAdams. She was remembered by many for her first major role in the movie Mean Girls. She also played Irene Adler perfectly in the adaptation of Guy Ritchie "Sherlock Holmes". Later, she also starred in the popular films "Night Games", "Boyfriend from the Future", "Doctor Strange" and others.
Young Claire and Henry played Brooklyn Prue and Alex Ferris, respectively.
But their daughter Albu had to play two young actresses at once. Tatum Makkan played a four-year-old girl, and her sister Haley Makkan played a little older. The use of two sisters allowed to achieve maximum similarity between the little and matured heroine.
Film crew
The film was directed by Robert Schwentke, who could not boast of rich experience before - he put on just a couple of films - “The Illusion of Flight” and “Tattoo”. But after the film, fame came to him. Robert was entrusted with staging films such as The Phantom Patrol and two parts of Divergent.
The screenwriter was the previously mentioned Bruce Joel Rubin. For moviegoers, he is well acquainted with the super-popular mystical melodrama "Ghost" with Patrick Swayze in the title role. He also wrote scripts for the films "The Last Mimzi in the Universe", "Stuart Little 2", "My Life", "Encounter with the Abyss".
Musical accompaniment
A lot of positive reviews "Time Traveler's Wife" received thanks to the excellent accompaniment. Not surprisingly, the filmmakers knew very well how important high-quality music is, immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of the movie. Therefore, Michael Dan was invited to play the role of composer. From 1978 to 2015, he wrote music for almost a hundred films. The most famous of them were Ordinary Magic, Johnny Mnemonics, Boondock Saints, Land of Tides, and several others. And for the music for the film "Life of Pi," he generally won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe.
Therefore, there is no doubt about the high quality of the musical accompaniment.
Interesting facts about the film
At the stages of selection for the filming of the film, David Fincher and even Steven Spielberg expressed a certain interest in the director's job! However, they did not participate in the negotiations for this position. Gus Van Saint negotiated a filming guide. But he did not participate in subsequent negotiations. Therefore, the director’s chair went to Robert Šventka, who made the film - admittedly, very, very good.
Initially, there was a rumor that the role of the main characters of the film will be taken by Eva Green and Adrian Brody. However, later completely different actors took part in the film.
Work on the film began in September 2007. It was planned that he will be released after a year. But this event was postponed for an entire year without any explanation, and viewers saw the film only in August 2009.
Continuation in the form of a series
In the summer of 2018, a rumor appeared that the series would be shot on the work, which would more fully and in detail show the life of the main characters. Soon, these rumors were confirmed. There was also information that Stephen Moffat himself would work on the script for the series.
It was he who wrote the scripts for the British TV series Sherlock, a series of episodes of Doctor Who (by the way, many of them are recognized as the best in the history of the series), as well as the animated film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of Unicorn. Therefore, we can say with confidence - the series will not disappoint the audience.
Conclusion
On this our article comes to an end. From it, the reader learned a lot of interesting things about the film “The Time Traveler’s Wife” - from the short story to the crew. Let us hope that moviegoers who have not yet watched the film will be interested in them and, if possible, fill this gap.