The Time Traveler's Wife

So, a couple years ago Jim n' I went to the Toronto Film Festival, where we managed to score prime seats in front of the producers for Lars and the Real Girl. As we waited for the movie to begin we overheard (eavesdropped on) them chatting about how they just went into development with the Time Traveler's Wife. 

Two years later and now we are the ones in development, just as the Time Traveler's Wife hits theaters. 

Jim n' I both managed to read the book this year, (Jim finishing it up only a few days ago), just in time to check the movie out on opening weekend.

First, if you haven't read the book... I highly recommend it. (Not that my word means anything, but...) I absolutely loved it. After I finished the last page, I was left with this yearning in the pit of my stomach for a good day or two. I wanted to spend more time with Henry and Claire. I wanted the story to go on for another 500 pages. The ending is so bittersweet, it just stuck with me. (Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that the ending in the book and the movie are slightly different, although I do understand why they did what they did.)

Anyhow, shortly after I finished reading the book, the trailer was released on the Apple site. I have to admit that I was actually a bit disappointed when I first saw it. It looked like they had transformed this amazing novel into more of a cotton candy chick flick. I was bummed. The book is so much more than a sappy romance! 

Nonetheless, I decided that I still wanted to see the movie. I braced myself for possible disappointment, but fortunately I was delightfully surprised. That being said, I will add that the movie wasn't without it's flaws. 

IMHO, (which again, means absolutely nothing, but whatever, this is my blog and you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't want to know what I think), I felt that it might've been nice if they had made the movie just 15 minutes longer to allow the audience to build up a greater emotional connection to Henry and Claire, by lengthening or adding a few scenes. 

While some people on IMDB complained that they felt the first part of the movie moved too slowly, Jim n' I both agreed that we felt it moved fast... almost too fast. The best way to describe it is as if they had written all the biggest plot points out on a deck of cards, and that they were quickly dealing them out one right after another. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Each scene was only about a minute or two long, without a real meaningful build up... or at least I just didn't 'feel' it, y'know?

If I hadn't read the book first, I don't think I would've been as attached to the characters. Actually, I can't honestly say that my heart ached as much during the movie as it did when I finished the book. 

I also think that if I hadn't read the book before the film, I might've found myself as lost as some of the people I overheard murmuring  to their partners as they exited the theater,  "Okay, I think I understood.... so he met her when she was a little girl, but when she meets him as a young woman, he hasn't met her yet?"  Although I do think the filmmakers did as good a job as they could explaining the whole time traveling paradox. I guess not everyone goes to a movie to think... (which could mean trouble for us.)

Anyhow, the whole experience was a very good lesson for Jim n' I, since our movie also deals with tricky concepts of time that need to be made *crystal clear*.  We need to ensure that we don't overwhelm the audience with too many scenes, and give them time to absorb everything. 

We also need to come to terms with the fact that there's going to be a large anonymous peanut gallery out there that's not going to like our movie. And (at the moment) I'm totally okay with that. Movies are so subjective - to each his own. In fact, I know that some of our friends n' family probably wouldn't enjoy our movie if they didn't know that it was written by us. (And I also know that every one of those people would blatantly deny that truth too. ;) 

But yeah, like I was saying, the IMDB peanut gallery... gawd, I don't know if it's insightful or scary to read the stuff people post on there. Although I've come to realize that about half the people who post on IMDB are either children or morons. 

Case in point, in regards to Henry getting a vasectomy, one person posed the question, "I don't understand. Did Henry get his penis cut off?" Ha ha ha. Yes. That's exactly what Henry did. He got his penis cut off.  

Good grief.

So yeah, I don't know where I'm going with all of this, except to say that I enjoyed the movie, enjoyed the book much more (of course), and learned a thing or two in the process, which will hopefully help us as we finish banging out our structure for DE.   

On another somewhat related note, I recently saw the trailer for The Lovely Bones, which I also read earlier this year. All I can say is WOW! I think that movie is going to bring the book more to life than my pathetic imagination did while I was reading it. I really have high hopes for that one, and can't wait until it hits theaters in December!