TT dub

Most of you know I've been somewhat obsessed with The Time Traveler's Wife and have been eagerly anticipating the movie for months now. My Austin friends haven't read the book and my Memphis friends have mostly, so I'm not really sure how to "review" it (so to speak), especially after considering other reviews online that address what it's like to watch the movie if you haven't read the book. 

So I'll just take it from my perspective (never fails, right?) and try not to spoil anything if you haven't read it: the movie was pretty different from what I expected, but I cried sufficiently enough that I walked out feeling like they'd done the book justice. I felt like they didn't flesh out the build-up of Henry & Clare's love enough before launching into their life together, but because I had the blueprint of the book in mind, I didn't feel totally jipped out of the chick-flick-iness that this part of the story could have afforded. Otherwise I thought they did a really good job of sifting out the most important elements of the book, which is nice to see in a translation that's as tricky as this one. 

I also thought they did a great job of conveying the whole sci-fi element of time traveling, although I did read that this was confusing for viewers who hadn't read the book. I've tried unsuccessfully describing it to non-readers who I think are now turned off by the confusion....but really, it's not that hard. So like, let's pretend I'm 26 right now (I am), and it's 2009 (it is). Let's say *poof* I time travel and find myself in 1988. I'm still my 26-year-old self, I just happen to be wandering around in 1988. In 1988 I would have been 5, so if I run into myself in the past, it's my 26-year-old self bumping into my 5-year-old self (who won't even know who I am). My 26-year-old self may suddenly realize that I remember this day - the day some weirdo older girl kept staring at me when I was little - but just couldn't make sense of it until now. In the same way that I appeared backwards in time, I could also time travel into the future. So maybe then I appear in 2015, and I can see myself as a 32-year-old. 

Somehow this just works. 

I guess the bottom line is if you haven't read it, read it, duh. And if you can't read, then fine, go see the movie and salivate over Eric Bana. His tiny mouth gets less annoying the more he takes his shirt off, I promise.