Pick Flick: The Time Traveler's Wife

Watched it. Loved it.

And that's what you call unconditional love.

After running some errands and AB meeting her long-lost friend in Trinoma, we went to see The Time Traveler's Wife in Sta. Lucia, the coolest mall on earth. Tickets are priced at P100 each (vs. other malls' P170) so you couldn't really complain or anything. We decided to watch the movie from the start so we waited and hour to go into the cinema but found out the movie has started already even before the schedule screening time. Baka late lang relo ko.

Why unconditional love, you ask? Let's just say that through the movie, I've been comparing it to the book and have found the movie somewhat lacking. I understand that they can't put everything that's in the book into the movie but how could they erase some things entirely. Like Ingrid, Henry's ex-girlfriend. And the bit that Gomez sort of have an HD towards Clare. I would have liked to see those bits in the movie.

I also think that the movie was too fast-paced. I was wondering if anyone who hasn't read the book could actually get it. In the book, there were like a bazillion chapters before Henry (Eric Bana) and Clare (Rachel McAdams) met for the first under normal circumstances, meaning Henry wasn't time -traveling.


What I loved in the book was how the mood shifted from during the earlier years of their relationship towards the latter part. In the book, I felt that Henry and Clare were very happy during the earlier stages of their relationship and marriage but then towards the end, it all became dismal when they were trying to have a baby and Clare kept having these miscarriages. She had around 5-6 miscarriages in the book that's why Henry decided to get the vasectomy, so as not to put Clare's life in danger. That wasn't shown nor mentioned in the movie. I don't think they captured the dismal parts right on.

I specifically read the book just so by the time the movie comes out, I've already read it and could compare it to book. But I'm thinking that that could be a bad idea. Like with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I watched the movie without reading the book yet and I enjoyed it very much. Well, I enjoyed TTTW, too. That's why I said it's unconditional love. I love it despite the and inspite of...

OMG, did you see Rachel McAdams' spinal column? She's doesn't look emaciated naman but you could see her spinal column poking out of her back. How do you do that? I'm totally envious. I have fats poking through my back.

After the movie, AB said that she appreciated the book cover only after watching the movie. I told her I appreciated the book cover when I first saw the trailer. Before I started reading the book, I see it around the house as AB had been reading it. Honestly, it didn't appeal to me. I happen to gravitate towards books that have cute covers and with TTTW, it's just not "cute." AB recommended that I read the book, so I read it. All the time I was reading it, I still thought it was an ugly cover and- you could say I'm medyo kuning-kuning for this- but I didn't realize what was on the cover. Only then did I realize that those were actually a little girl's feet with a man's clothes and shoes beside her. And it was only then that I appreciated the book cover, only then that I felt that she was waiting for something. Beautiful book cover.

I'm not totally sure about this but I think they changed the ending. It was still a nice ending though. During the last scene when Clare was running over to the clearing to see Henry, it was very much like the scene back when she was a little girl of 6 rushing over to the same spot to meet her friend. It was beautiful but at the same time sad. Clare has been spending her whole life waiting for Henry. Imagine that. Torture.

After all these years that Henry has been dead, Clare still hopes that he would time travel to the now from the time he was still alive. And when that moment happened, you could almost feel Clare's yearning. Beautiful.

I read somewhere in the world wide web that the author, Audrey Niffeneger, believes that "her novel does not depict destiny but rather randomness and meaninglessness." Wow, ah. And deep. Hindi ko ma-dig.