Ed. Note: This is the first post by new film contributor Alex Czysz. For more reviews of the summer's biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.
There’s always a problem with time travel. It isn’t the disruption of the space-time continuum, or the existential questions posed by our entering and exiting the chronological confines of which we are bound, or even the very question of what time is in and of itself. Ultimately, the problem is whether or not we can accept the very concept of time travel. If so, there's no turning back, and no questioning the structure of internal logic posed by the author. It is — as the saying goes — what it is.
All things considered, the chronological mechanics in Robert Schwentke’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (based on the recent bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger) are coherent enough. Eric Bana (sporting a rather distracting mullet for a good portion of the film) stars as Henry, a librarian afflicted with a rare genetic disorder called Chrono-Displacement which causes his involuntary disappearance from the present and subsequent reappearance in another segment of his life-line.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2009.