The Time Traveler's Wife
Aug. 17th, 2009 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karenorI should state again, for the record, that I didn't read the book. Now I'm of two minds about this. First, I'm kinda glad I didn't as I think I enjoyed the movie more because of that. Second, I did actually want to read the book, and the movie ruins it, I guess. Since I know basically what's going to happen.
The people I was with, four of them had read the book, but the other two are quiet dudes that don't really voice their opinions. The groups reactions ranged from pleasantly surprised to a condescending "it was cute, no really."
My main beef with the film was a big one, but if you can get over it, you can enjoy it. The thing is, is that the main characters are in love immediately. Which is okay in and of itself, as the story allows for it, since they kinda sorta knew each other already. But they're SO in love, so completely, that we so almost NO development of their relationship. They have one fight... and that's about it. Also, we know nothing about them, besides their fairly even temperaments. That's the problem oftentimes with converting books to movies... you lose all the details. We know the bare minimum about their jobs, their friends, etc. Claire (whose name I couldn't remember at the end, always a bad sign) was an artist, and a few times you see her making stuff, but I still have no idea what kind of art she does. Henry was... in special collections? The book will tell you he's a research librarian and other interesting stuff about him, but the movie didn't.
SO. If you can get past that, and just focus on them together, it's enjoyable. I even made a girly schmoopy sound at one point, when little Claire was jealous of herself. It's pretty as well. I mean the cinematography and all that. Not just Eric Bana. Who was very nice to look at, especially when he got the Brad-Pitt-style-youngification and had floppy hair. Nice indeed. (Incidentally, Brad Pitt was an exec. producer, who knew?)
Probably the best bits were those with Alba. And as I understand it, she was a much more minor character in the book. Because honestly I got a little tired of Claire by the end. Just a little. And I did feel a little bad for her to. Because of what they point out only once... that she didn't really have a choice... I did sorta wish more time was spent on the philosophy bit of the whole thing.
I wish I could be a bit more thorough. Let's just say I wasn't blown away and I didn't hate it. And I really wish that they'd gone for like a miniseries or series format or something (Journeyman doesn't count, that was CRAP) because it did seem like HUGE chunks of the story were missing even though I didn't KNOW what those huge chunks were.
5 or 6 out of 10, probably.
The people I was with, four of them had read the book, but the other two are quiet dudes that don't really voice their opinions. The groups reactions ranged from pleasantly surprised to a condescending "it was cute, no really."
My main beef with the film was a big one, but if you can get over it, you can enjoy it. The thing is, is that the main characters are in love immediately. Which is okay in and of itself, as the story allows for it, since they kinda sorta knew each other already. But they're SO in love, so completely, that we so almost NO development of their relationship. They have one fight... and that's about it. Also, we know nothing about them, besides their fairly even temperaments. That's the problem oftentimes with converting books to movies... you lose all the details. We know the bare minimum about their jobs, their friends, etc. Claire (whose name I couldn't remember at the end, always a bad sign) was an artist, and a few times you see her making stuff, but I still have no idea what kind of art she does. Henry was... in special collections? The book will tell you he's a research librarian and other interesting stuff about him, but the movie didn't.
SO. If you can get past that, and just focus on them together, it's enjoyable. I even made a girly schmoopy sound at one point, when little Claire was jealous of herself. It's pretty as well. I mean the cinematography and all that. Not just Eric Bana. Who was very nice to look at, especially when he got the Brad-Pitt-style-youngification and had floppy hair. Nice indeed. (Incidentally, Brad Pitt was an exec. producer, who knew?)
Probably the best bits were those with Alba. And as I understand it, she was a much more minor character in the book. Because honestly I got a little tired of Claire by the end. Just a little. And I did feel a little bad for her to. Because of what they point out only once... that she didn't really have a choice... I did sorta wish more time was spent on the philosophy bit of the whole thing.
I wish I could be a bit more thorough. Let's just say I wasn't blown away and I didn't hate it. And I really wish that they'd gone for like a miniseries or series format or something (Journeyman doesn't count, that was CRAP) because it did seem like HUGE chunks of the story were missing even though I didn't KNOW what those huge chunks were.
5 or 6 out of 10, probably.
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Date: 2009-08-17 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 05:44 pm (UTC)I might get around to seeing TTW eventually. I couldn't get into the book, though.
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Date: 2009-08-17 05:50 pm (UTC)I feel like maybe the TTW movie was a bit too idealized. Like a fanfic version of events...but without having read the book, I can't really say.