(2009) Ever since he was six years old, when his mother Annette, an opera singer, died in a car crash with him in the backseat, Henry DeTamble (Eric Bane) has traveled backward and forward in time. He can't control his departures and returns; when he exits, he leaves behind his clothing and arrives naked (usually restricted to a locale of Chicago within his own past or future), often necessitating stealing something to wear.

He can't change what happens in the past - telling his father, Richard, formerly a violinist gone to drink, he's attempted hundreds of times to prevent his mother's death - but sometimes uses his knowledge of the future to his advantage, such as the winning numbers of a lottery ticket.

In a meadow behind her house, Clare Abshire (Brooklynn Proulx) at six years of age makes acquaintance with Henry, as an adult, for the first time. From then on she keeps a diary of his every visitation ("You were just kind of a perfect guy"), from which he later learns to anticipate some of his trips. In college when she sees him in a library - he's a research librarian - she recognizes him (though younger than in his earlier appearances, telling him, "I've been in love with you all my life"), but he doesn't yet know who she is.

After chatting with his mother on a subway train a few years before the accident, he asks his father for her engagement and wedding rings to be given to Clare, with whom he says he doesn't feel alone any longer. In contrast to Richard DeTamble, Clare's wealthy father Philip is both a Republican and hunting enthusiast, which the filmmakers will employ as a sardonic political statement.

On their wedding day, Henry disappears to be replaced by an older version of himself for the vows; he's back in time for the night, only to exit again. In an effort to find out what's wrong, Henry sees Dr Kendrick, a geneticist, who coins the term chrono-impairment to describe Henry's genetic anomaly (a risibly unsatisfactory, completely unscientific explanation - but then most Americans, who don't know much about biology or physics, either wouldn't or couldn't care less).

Nonetheless, these disruptions without warning begin to wear on Clare ("I never had a choice"), especially a two-week stretch, including Christmas and New Year's. On some occasions Henry appears while his other self is also on the scene, such as when he's been wounded.

She becomes pregnant but then has a miscarriage, a mishap that repeats itself; without consulting her, Henry, afraid their child (perhaps the fetus has been time traveling out of the womb) will have his disease, gets a vasectomy. Clare, however, finds a way to get pregnant again: "It's not like I cheated on you."

This melodramatic romantic fantasy, directed by Robert Schwentke, adapted from Audrey Neffenegger's novel by screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, has its own anomalies. Clare's genes might be worth examining since she begins as a blonde who turns into a tawny teen before becoming a dark brunet as an adult. When Henry takes "Gomez" Gomolinski (Ron Livingston), who has married Clare's former roommate Charisse (Jane McLean), outside into the freezing air, soon followed by Clare, their breaths remain invisible. Much of what's being expressed here is similarly phony and unfounded.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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