Thursday, August 20, 2009

love will tear us apart again

*warning* the following entry contains spoilers for those who have not read The Time Travelers Wife or seen the movie. personal note: always read books before watching the movie. without fail they are better.






broken social scene - love will tear us apart


i went to go see the time travelers wife by myself last night. the older i get the more introverted i become, the more i long for alone time. i wonder (with great suspect that the answer is a resounding YES) sometimes if this is a product of being a mother, at home, constantly needed by little hands and minds with a smaller space in the world for Just Jenny than my personality is comfortable with. this too shall pass both in a good way - more personal time - and bad - i am needed less and less. but then again, do i need my own mother less than i did in previous years? physically, sure. i do not need her to sustain my very life but she sustains me in many many other ways. oh i love love love my mom. so back to the movie - and yet strangely still on the same topic of my mom - i did not even make it through the first scene without snotting into my hanky. you know, the scene in the book where henry time travels for the first time when he is in the car with his mother about to be hit by the truck. he teleports out of the car and onto the side of the road, where he meets an adult version of himself who has time traveled there to comfort him. it was so intense. i remember how touching that scene was in the book too. how, he knew he couldn't prevent the accident but he could be right there with a blanket and strong arms to comfort his 4 yr old self who watches the accident, powerless.

the book is my all-time favorite. i mean i know im supposed to say it is the bible but yeah. i mean God knows and all that but yeah, as a work of fiction (atheists reading this, resist commenting) the time travelers wife is it for me. i thought the movie was a fair representation. not bad, though certainly inadequate in representing the whole story. i mean they didn't even mention ingrid! nor the short storyline of henry getting horrible frostbite. i thought the wedding scene was my favorite though - it was the one that was most like the book. i love that they were joyfully jumping on the bed after their wedding and then all of a sudden henry's clothes were just a heap on the bed and she was alone. every scene with alba? don't get me started! i viewed every scene with his death and child through a blur of hot tears. though his death scene is about 1/10th as good as the book version. the broke social scene cover of joy divisions "love will tear us apart" was PERFECTION. download it. listen to it. love it.



i think ill go see it again soon.



& in non-sobbing news --



& then

4 comments:

Kristin said...

Man, your kids look so much a like!

Elizabeth said...

The Time Traveler's Wife is my favorite too! But I really hated the movie. I went last weekend (like you, by myself) and I was so looking forward to a lovely date w/ myself, but wow. I just didn't like it at all. I thought the Gomez character lost SO much, and that storyline was really important to the book. Also what about how they were supposed to make Kendrick believe them (predicting the DS baby, remember) and Henry's love of punk music, and the scene where the high school a-hole had burned Clare w/a cigarette and Henry kicked his butt. I mean, I know they can't leave everything in, but I think they could have done better. Plus everything just looked really cold and lonely to me - like at the New Year's Eve party at the end, it was supposed to be a joyful scene overflowing with everyone in Henry's life, but instead it looked really dark and not like a fun scene at all. All the personality was drained out of everyone. :-( I have read the book like five times though, so maybe there is just no pleasing me.

Olive said...

i've had a revelation since stepping back from the movie now - i didn't like it! all of the emotional response i had to scenes was echoing my love for those scenes IN THE BOOK. gomez was indeed lost. the dynamic of the friendship of all of them was non-present. im angry about ingrid being cut. i felt her role with henry was really important as was a more graphic heartbreak at all the miscarriages. the new years party was indeed a VERY PATHETIC take on the book version. i expected more... i dont know. just MORE. i had that scene so so clearly in my head.

and maybe that is the problem/best thing about this whole situation. the book generated such an amazing collection of mental pictures. it was as if i had already seen it in my mind. the book was so good in my opinion that no one should have tried to make it into a movie, however people being who they are someone was bound to "go there".

i do not think there is pleasing me too. however i will go see it again. maybe im a glutton for punishment.

Elizabeth said...

I'm glad to hear your updated feelings on the movie; I feel so validated now! Hee hee. ;-) I wonder if you will like it more or less after seeing it again? Maybe if you accept it on its own terms, it's a different experience. You know, separate the book from the movie in your mind. I couldn't do it on a first viewing.