Shift in time a painful journey
If the action feels a little jarring, that’s because the quieter moments are by far the more impactful in this achingly intimate tale, writes
Although some may bridle at yet another TV series based on a book that Hollywood has already had a crack at on the big screen, you have to admit it is a canny and compelling choice of screenwriter.
Who better than Steven Moffat, the man who dragged Doctor Who into the 21st century and elevated it to one of the most addictive shows on the box – as he first wrote for Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s timelords and then oversaw the tenures of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi? He has now penned a six-part adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 sci-fi romance The Time Traveler’s Wife (streaming on Neon and debuting on Vibe this Thursday)?
After all, he created the sparky timey-wimey-blighted love affair between Smith’s Tardis-dweller and Alex Kingston’s magnificent River Song. And helped the phrase ‘‘spoilers sweetie’’ enter the lexicon.
However, as the film version’s screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin discovered, adapting Niffenegger’s dualperspective prose, with its heady themes of ‘‘mutants, love, death, amputation, sex, and time’’ is not without its perils. Despite his and appealing leads Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana’s best efforts, the 2009 movie left many cold. The New York Post’s Kyle Smith memorably dismissed it as ‘‘a Twilight Zone premise written like a Mariah Carey song’’.
Also, since then, Diana Gabaldon’s similarly themed Outlander series of novels has become a massive success and developed a cult-like following on the small screen.
But whereas that’s an epic, centuries-spanning adventure filled with major incident and high stakes at every turn, Time Traveler’s Wife is far more of an intimate drama.
As perhaps should be expected from the book’s narrative device, voice-over does a lot of the heavy lifting in establishing the relationship between Claire Abshire (Games of Thrones’ Rose Leslie) and Henry DeTamble (Divergent’s Theo James). Both quickly explain how the latter’s ‘‘disability’’ has defined them. ‘‘The bed sheets will go slack, the shower will keep running, or the bacon will keep frying,’’ she says of the tell-tale signs that he has left her – once again – without warning.
‘‘I wait – and I worry – wondering where – and when – he is. Sometimes it’s five minutes, sometimes it’s days, weeks, months.’’
Henry describes the uncontrollable shifts as ‘‘like your attention has wandered, the book you’re reading is gone, your coffee is gone, and now you’re ankle deep in a ditch, or in the middle of a highway, or in a field of cows. And always naked’’.
Revealing that he’s had to get good at running, fighting and stealing just to survive, we learn how they first met when Claire was 6, Henry first discovered his ‘‘curse’’ when he was 7 and that she tries to keep a notebook of his every appearance. But while she initially wonders why ‘‘love is intensified by absence’’, both have also been scarred by their somewhat fraught and unusual relationship.
‘‘I grew up waiting for you, I formed myself around you,’’ she says, and he confides that ‘‘the future is the scariest thing in the world’’ and that ‘‘anyone can stand any kind of torture – except hope’’.
While James has the same
smouldering, pensive attributes as Bana, Leslie offers a different kind of Claire to McAdams, more resigned, even a touch resentful of her devotion to this somewhat transitory partnership. Given more time to flesh out the story and their relationship, Moffat teases out the latter’s dynamics and flaws – to fascinating and fulsome effect.
If the action scenes come across as a little jarring, that’s only because the quieter moments are by far the more impactful in Moffat’s smart, sensitive take. The opening episode’s scenes involving young Henry’s questions to his ‘‘guide’’ are engrossing and heartrending.
‘‘Do we solve crimes?’’ he asks. ‘‘We commit them,’’ comes the shocking reply.
‘‘Are we the bad guys?’’ he whispers. ‘‘Survivors are always the bad guys.’’
The Time Traveler’s Wife is now streaming on Neon. Episodes will also debut on Sky TV’s Vibe channel on Thursdays at 8.30pm from this Thursday.