The Time Traveler's Wife
New Line Cinema | Release Date: August 14, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
17
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Gracefully directed by Robert Schwentke, the film has a perfect performance by Bana, rangy and haunted, never at home in his body. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The book is richer, but this is a solid, endearing telling of the same essential story, and is well worth the price of admission for those who appreciate romantic fantasy. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The movie is slightly more sappy, and the characters are necessarily less fleshed out than they are in Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling novel, but neither shortcoming detracts from the film's appeal. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It would really help to get into the right frame of mind before seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, because viewed from some angles - maybe most angles - the movie is ridiculous. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
May not make a lick of sense, but it does make for fairly irresistible nonsense. Read full review
70
Washington PostJohn Anderson
What makes The Time Traveler's Wife work as drama, though, and certainly better than it might have, is an unhesitating emotional commitment on the part of the actors (and Schwentke). Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Bana and McAdams are sweet together, with matching dimples and starry eyes, and we grow eager to see them remain in the same place. In the end, that's all there is to the movie, really. It's a time-travel fantasy in search of a cozy love seat. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The warmth of the actors makes it surprisingly tender, considering the premise that is blatantly absurd. If you allow yourself to think for one moment of the paradoxes, contradictions and logical difficulties involved, you will be lost. The movie supports no objective thought. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
At its best, The Time Traveler’s Wife does suggest the preciousness of a life that’s too often beyond our control. At its worst, it’s more than a little nuts. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
German-born director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") keep things moving briskly enough so that the leaps in time mostly obscure the leaps in logic. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss
It's soppy enough to suit the requirements of the weepie genre...But the movie also has an aching solidity that allows you to surrender to its cuddly-creepy feelings without hating yourself in the morning. Read full review
60
EmpireLiz Beardsworth
Competent and well-cast, but it crams too much into the runtime and loses the elegance of the novel. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It might be a solid hook if we thought their love was grand. Instead, it's kind of creepy. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A syrupy and extraordinarily ridiculous adaptation. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The emotions and crises feel pre-sanded, smooth to the point of blandness. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The Time Traveler's Wife slips the romance cards into a stacked deck – read 'em if you will, but no need to weep. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
When the film's fate rests on the alchemy of its stars, you really don't want to get that wrong. But here, chemistry is a problem, and it proves a significant one. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A slog rather than the sweeping romance it aspires to be. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin won an Oscar for "Ghost" (1990), a pleasant, moderately thoughtful weepie that this movie closely resembles. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Although it's supposed to be supremely romantic, there's no daring in it, no go-for-broke passion. It's a nice little movie about romantic compulsion, just big enough to fit in a teacup. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
There's something curiously off about The Time Traveler's Wife. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
“Caution: Contents may induce brain bleed.” That is, if you think too hard on the logic and mechanics of its time-travel conceit. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
The story is still mostly fabulous, and its novelty helps carry the film, but this still comes across like a poor high-school stage version: sincere and kind of sweet, but endlessly clumsy. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Will disappoint anyone looking for transport from a movie--being a time traveler's wife, it turns out, is mostly a drag. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Often ridiculous, awkward, unsatisfying and dour melodramatic adaptation. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
The movie moves at such an agonizingly stately pace that by the end, side effects be damned, Henry's time-traveling gene starts to look mighty appealing. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
The movie doesn't really begin or end. Whether the lights have just gone down or the credits have begun to roll, things are pretty much the same for Henry. Read full review
30
NPRJeannette Catsoulis
McAdams glows, as always, but Bana looks drained: I guess all that time-shifting leaves its mark on the complexion as well as the soul. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
I'd watch the vibrant Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in anything, but The Time Traveler's Wife is pushing it. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The cozy sentimentality in The Time Traveler's Wife is the only thing that grounds it. Mostly it's just featherheaded. Read full review
16
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
They miss by a mile – or should I say, a light-year. Read full review
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