Dude Where'd My Husband Go?: The Time Traveler's Wife

Directed by Robert Schwentke
Starring Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana and Ron Livingston

Haha, if you imagine Ashton Kutcher saying this post's title it's even funnier....yessss

SYNOPSIS: Imagine a person could time travel, naked, and then imagine that someone was your husband...what would you do? Well this film answers that question. It is of course based off a book, as all good movies are, by Audrey Niffennegger the woman with the worst last name in history. But seriously Henry DeTamble is an ordinary boy until he learns that he time travels against his will and always without clothes. The interesting part is that he revisits events in his own life and one of those events is the life of his wife Clare. The film is about their meeting and also about the affects of his traveling on their marriage.

THE POSITIVE: I have read this book and it is awesome so I was a little leary going in. I thought it would be hard to translate into film, but it works suprisingly well. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana are perfect as Clare and Henry and they have great chemistry. I thought it was paced well and shot very nicely. The film had a great look to it and I really liked the cinematography, which is of course enough for me to enjoy any film. I'm also a sucker for romance so this was really well done. It had a certain inevitability about it that was both sad and uplifting. The acting was also superb from the whole cast (do you notice that I say that a lot? it's because I'm not an acting judge so feel free to ignore whatever I say about actors).

THE NEGATIVE: I thought his disappearing effect was a little cheesy and would have liked to see something a little better than a slow dissolve. There were also some interesting camera tricks (a steadicam shot, some interesting angles and tilt ups) that were used at random times in the film, which I didn't get. I'm all for trying new things, but do it with a purpose. Of course, my constant gripe-the book was better. There's just so much to fit in that they had to pare down a lot of it and whereas the book is really about Clare, the movie is about Henry.

This isn't a negative of the film, but I will say that by the end I was in tears and when I was wiping my eyes in shame I looked over at my friend, Meghan, who sat with dry eyes looking at the screen with a confused expression. Meghan you have a heart of stone and that's all I have to say.

THE VERDICT: If you have some extra cash lying around go see it, but otherwise wait for the rental. It's a nice film to watch on a rainy night and will leave you, hopefully, feeling hopeful rather than sad.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.*