Henry [Eric Bana] is a time traveller who can’t control when or where he travels. At the age of six he finds out that he can time travel and has done it ever since. One day he travels back in time to see his future wife, Clare [Rachel McAdams], when she is six and the film follows this magical love story between Henry and Clare.
This movie doesn’t hide anything from you when you read the premise. It’s a genuine romance story with a science fiction element which is dealt with seriously and therefore brings up a lot of interesting special dynamics in the relationship between Henry and Clare. For example one of the biggest questions you ask yourself is would they get together if he hadn’t travelled back in time to meet her as a six year old? Or one that is constantly addressed throughout the movie; how do you think Clare feels having to live with this constant inconsistency? When you think about it while we’re following Henry around on his shifting in and out of time periods Clare is left sitting at home waiting for the next time she gets to see him.
To be honest I think a lot of men will take their significant others to see this film, for obvious reasons, and while the women will love the movie men will have one of two responses. Men will either: (a) decide to try and pick apart the story due its use of time travel; or (b) realise that it’s a sappy romance film and actually pay attention to the characters and fall in love with Mr. Bana just like how Ms. McAdams did. I personally fall into the (b) category but I must warn all the (a) men out there and ask you to point that logic meter to any film you like about time travel. Time travel can make or break a film depending on how you decide to look at it. The manipulation of time makes you constantly have to think about who knows what when and which preceded what; it makes the story very convoluted and therefore makes it hard to believe things. Personally it’s a plot device that I like in a lot of films but is best used in moderation to help keep us all in tune with the movie. Therefore this is why this movie fails just a little bit because Henry is jumping in and out of time nearly every second. I love the effects whenever we see him disappear but at the same time I could almost predict that anytime he goes just a little bit out of frame he was going to leave us right then and there.
One thing that will take you for a loop in the movie is that not only does Clare love Henry, even with his condition, but she also tolerates it. However, eventually Henry decides that he needs it to stop due to its inconvenience, as you would imagine, and he seeks out Dr. David Kendrick [Stephen Tobolowsky] to help him. Now I think the world of Mr. Tobolowsky and love most of his work that I’ve seen and when he appeared in the film I couldn’t help but throw my fists in the air with an awesome sound effect going off in my head. Even though he had little to do in the movie I definitely loved every moment he was on the screen.
Other than the expected tear jerker the film is genuinely a good film and definitely the perfect film to take the misses out to this week when she starts nagging you about all the action movies she’s had to endure in the last few months.
IMDB says 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes says 36%
I say 7.5/10