Books at the Box Office: Time Traveler’s Wife

Librarians as fictional characters intrigue me, and The Time Traveler’s Wife movie came out in 2009, right around the time I was starting to actually enjoy romantic movies, and I had recently seen Eric Bana as Henry VIII, so I was sold. The movie inspired me to read the book (its usually the opposite!) and I ended up really enjoying both of them. Now, looking back with about a decade of hindsight, I’m not quite as keen,but I know so many people have memories of absolutely sobbing during the whole thing.

From Amazon:

Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals–steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Now, the movie trailer:

The film stars Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, and Ron Livingston and captures the essence of the novel pretty well, even if some aspects of the plot are changed. It feels like a Nicholas Sparks romance on crack in some ways–like if the Notebook involved an acid trip. Time travel, love, the first thing I really learned what a miscarriage was, some sex, it’s got it all. I remember hearing people gush about this movie, and the book, so if you love romance and a good love story that’s not the typical ilk, check it out.