Good movie, book STILL better!

The Time Traveler's Wife is another movie adapted from a best-selling novel and I was prepared to tear it apart and scoff at how terrible it was compared to the book. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a pretty good movie. Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams do a wonderful job of portraying the characters they are playing as well as their emotions. Plus, the script is a decent adaptation of the novel it's based on even with a few minor omitted sequences that are important and or relevant to the story, in my humble opinion. All in all, I think the movie does not disappoint.

This is not to say I think you shouldn't read the book. Au contaire, mon frère! Reading the book before the movie is like reading the assigned chapter in a History class before the professor gives the lecture. This method is designed to fill in any of the gaps in the professor's lecture since he or she only has a limited time in which to talk about the material being presented. The same goes for the movie based on a book. Especially in a movie based on a book with such a complex time travel storyline as in that of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. I saw the movie with three people who hadn't read the book and they all had various questions regarding the story. "Is the emotion just as potent while reading the book?" "I don't get the whole sequence of the time travel!" "I didn't understand why he..." and on and on. The three of us who HAD read the book came out really excited and only talked about things like, "I can't believe they left out the part when..." or "Wow, the part where ... was JUST like in the book!"

Ultimately, I think if you don't read the book before going to see the movie, you are cheating yourself out of a richer movie experience. Although, reading the book before seeing the movie can sometimes leave a very bitter taste in your mouth if the movie differs greatly from the original story. In the end, it can be a double edged sword kind of situation but I'll always take the side of the sword where you can form an informed opinion on the question: "Was it as good as the book?".

Rose