The Time Traveler's Wife

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE        B                     

USA  (107 mi)  2009  d:  Robert Schwentke

While Chicago was all abuzz about Johnny Depp and Christian Bale being in town making Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009), this film quietly goes about its business of featuring some of the best Chicago locations since John Hughes shot films in the area.  Secondly, Florian Ballhaus, son of noted Fassbinder and Scorsese cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, seems to be having a whale of a good time behind the camera, which swoops down hallways and flows through various rooms with an unabashed relish as it enthusiastically follows the paths of various characters.  The film does an excellent job of weaving this time traveling story into a coherent whole as it is chock full of interruptions that take us through different time periods.  But the film gets right to it from the outset, when in no time a young boy scared out of his wits from a car crash stands alone on the side of the highway visited abruptly by an older version of himself who tells him not to worry.  Now that’s an opening!  Not sure when the idea of time traveler’s being naked came into vogue, but they’re all the rage now.  Perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original TERMINATOR (1984), where much of the humor was showing Arnold naked and then finding a way to put some clothes on.  Here as well, each of the moments where he finds himself suddenly arriving from another time period are rather humorous, as he’s always desperately trying to find clothes.  Sometimes it’s done with sound cues alone, as we hear in the background “Somebody stole my wallet” as he coolly hops on a Ravenswood train, wallet in hand, or at one point he arrives in the middle of a natural museum exhibit where all the children gleefully point to the naked man.  Unfortunately his time traveling is involuntary so he is helpless and can’t stop himself from disappearing at a moment’s notice or from arriving stark naked, and usually starving, broke, and in trouble from another time span.  However he can predict the future, because he's already been there.  Again, not sure what the rules are for what you can and cannot mention about the future, but this dilemma was woven into the fabric of the movie. 

Easily some of the best scenes are early on when Henry, a naked adult time traveler (Eric Bana) from the future comes to visit a charming 6-year old girl (Brooklyn Proulx) named Clare, The Time Travellers Wife :: Young Clare Scene YouTube (3:15), where without an ounce of prurient possibilities spends the day playing and telling her magnificent stories, and then explains in exact detail when he’ll be arriving again.  She, of course, becomes fascinated and puts clothes out for him when he arrives and starts making entries in her diary as if this is the coolest experience in the world.  And, of course, it is, much like getting visits from Santa Claus.  That’s the whole thrill of time traveling, the anticipation of wondering what will happen in another time and place.  The same thrill awaits someone waiting patiently for a visitor from a different time period, as what new information will they bring?  It’s curious that they meet so young, and that they eventually strike up a loving and healthy near same age relationship worthy of marriage, but he changes ages when he travels, shown humorously at his own wedding.  There’s an interesting turn of events when 20-year old Clare (Rachel McAdams) meets 28-year old Henry at the Newberry Library in Chicago, but he has never seen her before, yet she has known him almost her entire life and claims they’ve been waiting a long time for this first dinner date.  It’s only afterwards that he goes back to visit her in her childhood.  So the film does a good job playing with these expectations and the strange time chronology.  Both McAdams and Bana are excellent and are onscreen the entire film wrapped in an agonizing tenderness, but their appeal is mostly because they’re intelligent adults who insist upon their own identities and actually have adult conversations together about love, their own failings, and loss.  Adapted from Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, the book was a metaphor for the on again off again state of failed relationships, especially the tendency for men exiting relationships abruptly, but the movie acknowledges these difficulties while accentuating the staying power of love. 

In the book, young Clare lives in South Haven, Michigan, while in the movie, the entire state apparently is her back yard, as no one has ever had a back yard so endlessly vast as this child, who plays alone completely unattended in the green fields that go on for miles, the site for so many of their early visits.  When Clare and Henry do finally get married at her parent’s lavish estate, with all their family and friends in attendance, he inexplicably disappears several times, only to return in various states of duress (completely clothed, by the way) from other time periods, arriving at the altar finally as a suddenly older, graying around the temples, and unshaven version.  It must be said, the Mychael Danna wedding band cover version of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” The Time Traveller's Wife - First Dance YouTube (2:30) was the sappiest version ever heard, but an apt choice.  Later, a comfortably married Clare wants to have a baby, but she keeps losing them unexpectedly, which is causing a great deal of friction between the two, as Henry doesn’t wish to be the cause of someone else having his extreme genetic condition, so he gets a vasectomy, only to time travel back to an 18-year old Clare who at that moment receives his first kiss.  In the book version, Clare is perfectly happy to hear these events recounted later in life, but in the movie version she erupts in anger at him for taking advantage of her in that situation, manipulating her and not allowing her freedom of choice, all under the façade of fate, that it has been predetermined.  This is ultimately the thrust of the movie, as in the throes of love, neither one has control over their own free will, as he disappears at a moment’s notice against his will while she is forced to wait indefinitely, never knowing when or if he’ll ever return, requiring a trust factor that is otherworldly.  In loving him, she literally takes on the role of Penelope who had to wait an entire decade for the return of her adventurous Odysseus, as in both instances, they spend their entire lives continually awaiting their lover’s return.  For those expecting a sci-fi time traveling story, this one has little sci-fi and is all about the lengths one is willing to go for love.  The film version takes some liberties with the end, altering the dark and heartbreaking ending with something a little more hopeful.  It’s still a weeper.   

Star Trek

STAR TREK               B               
USA   (127 mi)  2009  ‘Scope  d:  J.J. Abrams

One aspect of Star Trek that has been missing in the movie versions is an understanding for why the TV show clicked, namely the interrelations between the characters who couldn’t have been more different from one another, where the racial and intergalactic diversity expressed each week literally raised the bar in viewer social awareness.  The show interestingly maintained a healthy dose of personal barbs between the characters that created distinct personalities at work in otherwise cramped, claustrophobic quarters, where from time to time they amusingly got on each others nerves and would take verbal swipes at one another.  Some of the legendary cracks between Medical Officer McCoy raising his suspicions about half Vulcan, half human Spock’s overly rational brain reflecting the side of him that wasn’t human became part of the running dialogue on the ship, and was consistently used not only in the heat of battle but especially in the final few seconds of each show’s epilogue to show that no matter what their differences, all’s well that end’s well, as they survived another adventure together.  That is the one attribute that this Star Trek movie pays particular attention to and it feels like a welcoming home of the characters themselves, as each is once more carefully defined by a certain aspect of their character that is wonderfully appealing.  Add to this an astounding degree of physical resemblance to the original crew that is simply extraordinary.  What’s fun about this version is that it comes before the regular crew of the Starship Enterprise was formed, where each hadn’t yet developed into their now familiar roles.  The back stories, bearing a Smallville Superman, the early years resemblance, offers unique insight, even when it becomes hammy and so deliciously exaggerated to the point of being operatic.  The film does an excellent job pin-pointing and merging the early years for both Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) on their respective planets, one in Iowa, the other on planet Vulcan, also providing an early action sequence that reveals how Kirk’s father was a Starship captain for a mere handful of seconds, yet in a heroic effort saved hundreds of lives in the process, including his wife and newborn. 

One of the criticisms of the Star Trek movies overall is their over-reliance on special effects, where they love to show off where so much of the money goes, and this film is no different.  It gets carried away with the same adrenaline rushes that fellow big budget Hollywood director Michael Bay is known for, also supported by wailing voices and plenty of pounding percussion.  The difference here is that the characters are intriguing from the outset.  When Kirk recklessly races cars as a kid or Spock is subjected to relentless torment from fellow Vulcans about his half human side, their personalities are being formed by the way they overcompensate from what’s missing in their lives, Kirk missing a father while Spock’s mother is not Vulcan.  Kirk’s testy fight in the bar sequence and his relentless approach to seducing any and all women he sees is laughably over the top, but who would have thought Spock could be taunted into fisticuffs on his home planet?  There’s a familiar ring to all of this, as Zoë Saldana’s sexy, but warmhearted Uhura is actually romantically partnered with Spock here, not Kirk, amusingly seen giving last minute kisses in the transportation deck.  Karl Urban is drop dead hilarious as Dr. McCoy injecting Kirk with a virus to gain him access to an otherwise off limits Starship, following with a succession of more injections due to his unforeseen symptoms, all while Kirk is challenging a Captain’s decision and making perhaps the biggest decision in his as yet undeveloped career.  John Cho’s fencing expertise as Sulu early on saves Kirk’s life, and Anton Yelchin’s verbal mugging of the English language as the brilliant 17-year old thickly Russian accented Chekov is exquisite.  Simon Pegg as the drink happy Chief Engineer Scott is deliriously happy at discovering transporting can take place at warp speeds, not to mention that he invented the scientific equation.  And Leonard Nimoy makes not just an appearance, but plays a significant role in what this movie is about, that it’s not all accolades and successes of a rewarding career, but life is all about the journey along the way.  

One major beef, however, is that it follows of the same formula that big Hollywood productions seem destined to follow, which is to accentuate meaningless battle sequences with plenty of explosions, including innumerable space ships, with objects hurled through space, bodies flying, where death and destruction is a major pattern to follow, as if that’s what holds an audience’s attention.  No doubt for some, that’s the bottom line:  was it exciting?  Eric Bana is really very good as the rogue Romulan outlaw Nero, whose brutal interrogation methods are Neanderthal, but his mind is intensely psychological, scarred himself from losing his own planet.  Little by little the main characters move their way into their familiar positions, predictably overcoming all obstacles.  Unfortunately, this is a male heavy cast with few opportunities other than Uhura and Spock’s mother to even have speaking roles, so for a film that features as one of its goals to lead the way in presenting a diversified view of a utopian future society, they certainly failed in this opportunity.  Very few creatures from other galaxies played any significant role as well, so this was largely seen as the typical white man’s battle to save the universe.  Spock’s performance in particular is impressive, especially because he is so full of doubt while also being the smartest guy in the room, while Kirk is a gung ho thrill seeker from the outset, the guy who routinely takes the greatest risks, yet whose self-centered arrogance is more a trait of actor William Shatner, the original Kirk, whose gargantuan ego preceded him wherever he went, as opposed to Pine who spends most of the film engaged in fights, oftentimes on the losing end, whose first response tendency toward reckless behavior does not exactly bode well for ship morale.  But as a blockbuster action thriller costing $150 million, this at least goes for the tone and charming character references of the original TV series.