BE MINE: Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams will leave die-hard romantics teary-eyedgoods

While the movie is downright romantic, the fact that bodies move through space and time seems physically impossible, just as an older self being present at the same time as a younger self seems absurd. However,
it is a movie, so...

The intense, almost impossible love between the two is what pulls on the heartstrings.

Clare (Rachel McAdams) has been in love with Henry (Eric Bana) her entire life. She believes they are destined to be together, even though she never knows when they will separate as Henry is a time traveller.

Cursed with a rare genetic anomaly that causes him to live his life on a shifting timeline, he skips back and forth through his lifespan with no control (and no clothes). His unplanned travels forces them apart with no warning while Clare desperately tries to build a life with her one true love. How she carries on her life while he suddenly melts and pops up somewhere else — sometimes the future, sometimes the past — is admirable.

Every time he is transported to another time, Henry scrambles for cover and regains his bearings, only to suddenly pop back into Clare’s life. A particular scene where Henry, an adult, meets an adoring young girl in a pastoral meadow, which clearly was meant to be innocent, comes off as a little creepy and wrong.

Perhaps the book it was based on, written by Audrey Niffenegger would have described the encounter with more sensitivity. However, the movie has its sweet moments that will leave die-hard romantics teary-eyed.

Directed by Robert Schwentke, the film does not try to explain time travel or the genetic disorder that can be passed on to the next generation.

It takes it for granted that the disorder is accepted and the plot carries on with it, established within minutes in the opening when the older Henry comforts his younger self when his mother is involved in a car accident.

If you surrender to the basic time traveling-genetic disorder fantasy and to the characters, then you won’t have any difficulty feeling empathic towards them.

Bana is charming and quite sexy while McAdams is pretty and loyal, albeit sad, as his wife.

For those who haven’t read the book, the film is another romantic tale exploring the realities of love, happiness, sorrow and loss. Apparently, some who have read the book are satisfied over the way the film captures the essence of the novel. Overall, it is a movie worth risking, if you are a hopeless romantic at heart.

The Time Traveler’s Wife opens in cinemas across Malaysia today.