journal features

movie review - The Time Traveler's Wife

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2010.11.30

This is a superb story about a man who with the ability to travel in time. He can't control this ability and it causes him a great deal of grief and injury. His girlfriend, later wife, is drawn to him after he visits her several times as a young adult even before they've met in his timeline. She has several miscarriages during the marriage, likely because the fetuses were in some regard traveling in time. But eventually one pregnancy is carried to term, and then the story of their daughter and her time traveling begins.

The traveler's (mis)adventures and the toll they take are very well rendered in this story. I found the whole thing note-perfect in tone and story. I really enjoyed this.

Strongly recommended.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges