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Time Traveler’s Audience

August 28, 2009 by Pearl 

The Time Traveler’s Wife, currently in movie theatres, is a romantic drama based on Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 bestselling novel. Henry, the main character has a genetic anomaly that throws him into time travel without choice. The story explores the complications created by Henry’s unpredictable leaps in time between him and his lover, Clare.

The couple meets when 10-year old Clare is playing in a meadow, and 36-year old Henry calls to her from behind a bush. The plot follows the two through different time periods as Henry jumps in and out of different decades, running into his past, present, and future self. The result is a life that unfolds in fragments.

Since the novel’s release in 2003, it has sold more than 2.5 million copies in the United States and United Kingdom. Although the novel was a huge success, the film version, released in mid-August was not very well received.

Joanne Kaufman of the Wall Street Journal titled her review of the film, “No Time’s Right for Traveler’s Wife.”

Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The film should have swept in and swept us off our feet with its grand romance… Sadly, McAdams’ facility as an actress is mostly wasted, and you wish that Bana could have borrowed some of his haunting intensity from Munich.”

On RottenTomato.com, the film received only 36% positive reviews, with a consensus that said, “Though it may satisfy fans of the novel, Time Traveler’s Wife’s plot contrivances and illogical narrative hamper its big screen effectiveness.”

So why, when the novel was such a huge success, did the film suffer such negative reviews?

Pam Jackel, a reader of Kaufman’s review, wrote in defense, “… if you’re traveling back and forth in time, time does not flow in the same sequence for you as it does for those around you. So the chapters of the book/movie really have three sequences⎯his timeline, hers, and the reader/viewer’s⎯the order in which the scenes are presented to the reader.”

As a reader of the novel myself, I agree with Ms. Jackel’s explanation of the three timelines. While reading the novel, I admittedly flipped back to prior pages multiple times to understand where the story was in time.

Consider the book a document and the film a presentation. A document allows its readers to venture back and forth to re-read prior content and references. On the other hand, a presentation does not allow the audience to pause and riffle back to review previous material.

While the plot of this timeless love story is intriguing, viewers of the film simply cannot follow the illogical path of the timeline(s). As in presentations, the audience must be given a clear flow structure.

Creating a well-structured flow for disconnected material is not impossible. The screenwriter of Slumdog Millionaire was able to string many fragmented events, past and present, into one coherent story. Jerry discussed the importance of a road map in two of his recent blogs, This is Your Pilot Speaking Part I and Part II.

Provide your audience with a logical flow for your presentation or they will start time traveling on you.

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