THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE: it's not as good as the book

If Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is a three course dinner then director Robert Schwentke's film version is little more than a light snack. It fills a hole but only just and only temporarily.
I'm a fan of the book so it's impossible for more to separate my memories of that from my reaction to the movie. I knew going in that it was highly unlikely that the latter would match up to the former. It's a complaint common to almost anyone who's seen the film adaptation of their favourite novel.
That said, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is not bad as romantic dramas go. It passes the time pleasantly enough and the relentless and shameless tugging at the heartstrings will leave you a little moist around the eyes. It's one of those movies that audiences tend to describe as "okay" and "alright."
Eric Bana stars as involuntary time traveler Henry DeTamble. A genetic flaw has left him prone to zapping backwards and forwards in time within the confines of his own life. It allows him to talk to himself as a young child for example, and also to meet Claire, the little girl who will grow up to become his wife.
As the adult Claire, Rachel McAdams is required to do little more than gaze adoringly in soft-focus at Henry and tear up on cue. With her endless tolerance for her husband's frequent and often highly inconvenient disappearances she is what many men would consider to be the perfect woman.
Bana is solid if unmemorable as Henry but that is how the character should be. Henry is an ordinary guy who just happens to have a unique but unwanted talent.The film remains true to the novel in not jazzing up the time-shift experience with production number special effects. The process is as understated as Henry's changing appearance. There's no huge difference in the way he looks at 20 or 39 although the film compensates by having the characters confirm their age in many scenes to help us understand just where he is in time. These time checks are provided far more infrequently in the novel which makes the story considerably more confusing but also gives it greater depth.
This film version does little more than skim the surface of the novel, touching on the key points and ignoring much of the richness and texture. It reduces Henry's life to little more than a series of time-travelling incidents and the mood is considerably more downbeat than I remember the novel being. It's unrealistic to expect a 107 minute movie to do justice to a 560 page novel but if it leaves you with a hankering to pick up the book then the efforts of Bana, McAdams and Schwentke will not have been entirely without purpose.