Let me begin by saying that I was intrigued by the sci-fi elements of the movie, which led me to renting it for $1 at Redbox. [Now would be a great time for some corporate sponsorships!] But something happened on the way to watching the movie, and I actually found myself caring about the love story between Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) and Claire (Rachel McAdams). Of course, I have no reference with the book which Audrey Niffenegger wrote to deal with a failed history of relationships, but I found the tension between the “present” and its forward- and backward-rolling timeline to be gripping. Still, it has a lot to say about love, doesn’t it, whether you agree or not?
[Warning: major spoilers ahead. Or behind, depending upon whether or not you’re a time traveler.]
Henry meets Claire when she’s a young child, and ends up flitting in and out of her life for the next fifteen or so years. They finally end up in their “present” and have a torrid love affair where they get married and try to have children. Unfortunately, the fetuses keep hijumping out of Claire through time (or “miscarrying”). Henry makes a unilateral decision to have a vasectomy, even though Claire wants to keep trying, but her tryst with the younger Henry from the past (confusing, isn’t it?) leads to her pregnancy. She comes to term, while, alternatively, Henry discovers from his preteen daughter that she is learning to “control” her jumps, and that she knows that he dies by the time she’s five.
Bana and McAdams play their parts to the hilt, but I found myself seeing the story as told more from Henry’s perspective than Claire’s. And the two lovers seem to be at odds about their perspectives on life. If Henry wants to keep his offspring from enduring the same fate, then Claire ends up forcing the issue by having sex with his time-traveling other. If Henry knows that he’s going to die, he tries to keep it from her. It’s obvious that their love is pure, but their relationship is faulty; and I think that was the author’s point, because the time jumps keep them from communicating clearly with each other. Regardless of what they mean to each other, their ability to work together is jammed because of the constant jumps, and Henry’s desire to “protect” Claire from the pain.
Compared to shows like The Bachelor or maybe The Marriage Ref, I’m inclined to think that The Time Traveler’s Wife has a better grasp on life. Seriously, how many times will a Bachelor walk out there and say, “I love you so much,” to two or more women, and claim that those things are really love? While hysterical, the marriages presented in Jerry Seinfeld’s latest outing hit serious roadblocks when one spouse wants to install a stripper pole in the bedroom or mount the dear, departed dog on the mantle. But are they any less dangerous to real love than the idea that you can move the pieces of your heart around based on what’s predicted or “known?”
Which leads into my next question. How much credence do we put into the idea that we can know our future? What does it mean for us to predict or worry about what might happen, rather than dealing with the presence? In effect, the movie proposes that these two maintain a relationship which is more sensitive and less predictable than military personnel being deployed overseas without warning, or an incarceration. Henry and Claire, to their credit, do remain faithful to each other regardless of the roadblocks or problems, and I find myself considering how it compares to The Fountain. Henry and Claire “pursue” each other through time, but they’re cursed to forever clutch on the moments that they do spend together.
That’s where I think we can learn from the pair. Recognizing that each moment could be their last, or that they might never find each other again in the present, Henry and Claire live for the love they share “right now.” They do make sacrifices (ignore the manipulation) and their poor choices are usually made in an attempt to help out the other. In the end, their commitment, their love in marriage, through time and death, is remarkable, and even the crazy situations can’t keep them apart.
