The Time Traveler’s Wife
Director: Robert Schwentke
BIG Home Video, Rs 599
HH
Once you realise this is a loopy movie involving a man going back in time to meet the six-year-old version of his wife; his wife having sex with his younger self; and his sudden disappearances (minus his clothes), you know that romance is just another prop in this film in which confusion is the key. Based on Audrey Niffenegger’s best-selling novel of the same name, The Time Traveler’s Wife runs for some 102 minutes, to give us a twisted version of a long-distance relationship.
Eric Bana, as the time traveller, is intent on breaking the world record of a lead character showing the most number of butt shots in one movie. From the twee intellectualism of lines like: “Could we pretend that this is the first time we’ve met?” to full-blown tear-jerker scenes of a difficult relationship, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a brainier version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Oh, Brad Pitt is one of the executive producers. A decent enough Valentine’s Day flick if you’re a brainy couple.
The Boat That Rocked
Director: Richard Curtis
BIG Home Video/Warner, Rs 499
HHH
When you mix a story about the Swinging Sixties with a ramshackle bunch of pirate DJs — this was the time when rock’n’roll was a bad thing even on British radio stations — you get a pretty good yarn. Part-Almost Famous (the rock’n’roll against the establishment bit) and the part-Love Actually (the who shagged whom bits), this is a fun movie with some great music running around on the decks.
The stand-outs are the infinitely malleable Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Lester Bangs-sort-of sole American DJ in this British pirate radio enterprise, Rhys Ifans as his shagoholic rival, and Bill Nighy, playing the anti-establishment’s Rupert Murdoch figure. Charming fun.