Time for leaps of belief

Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana as a couple repeatedly brought together in different times and places. Photo / Supplied

Eric Bana turns up in random destinations, at different times in history, completely naked in his new movie The Time Traveler's Wife.

The 41-year-old Australian, best-known for his tough guy image, shows his sensitive side this time round, playing Henry, who is cursed with a genetic anomaly meaning he involuntarily jumps backwards and forwards in time.

Understandably he finds himself in some difficult situations as he's catapulted into various decades of his life - and the audience is required to take these giant leaps with him.

He falls in love with his future wife, Clare, (played by Rachel McAdams) whom he gets to know when she is 6 years old and he is 36. And although he has the ability to see into the future, he cannot change it. That's when things get complicated.

Based on the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger and directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) it's a weepie, over-the-top fantasy. However, what's more telling about where The Time Traveler's Wife fits is the fact the screenplay was written by Joel Rubin who wrote the Oscar-winning Ghost, the 1990 tale of fatal love starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.

And who better to be the female lead than The Notebook's 31-year-old McAdams, who has worked in many other genres, but is best known as the heroine in tragic love stories.

In New York to promote the movie, McAdams and Bana are holed up in a hotel room together, with McAdams gushing about this much-loved book.

"I fell in love with it when I read it. I knew in the back of my mind that they were doing a movie at some point in time and so I just kind of waited. Just hoping," she laughs.

Whereas Bana, channelling his former life as a stand-up comedian, jokes, "Oh, I thought, why bother reading the book?"

Although he later admits he had to become familiar with the novel, especially relating to the aspects of fate and destiny.

"Fate has a lot to do with how we connect with people. You can't choose to meet a person. It just happens. Everyone in your life, other than your parents, comes to you out of fate. You form friendships, which is a conscious decision, but it's fate that puts you in the room together. Destiny puts you in the same workplace or in the same school, and so it clearly has a very strong influence on personal relationships, I think."

It was time travel that most interested McAdams and she's obviously given the idea some serious thought. "I would love to be able to see my parents falling in love or to see them as children. I think that would be kind of neat," she smiles.

"For me," continues Bana, "I would like to see any great band from the past, even bands I'm not into. But just to see the Beatles or U2 when they were in their hometown before anyone discovered them, what could be better than that?"

However, it was the sci-fi aspect that appealed most to Bana. "I thought Twilight Zone was awesome, especially the old black and white episodes. I loved that show as a kid. And everyone loves the idea of time travel."

"But," adds McAdams, "one time-travel trip I wouldn't want to do is to go back to high school," she laughs. "So the 90s are definitely out for me."

While there's no getting away from the fact that loss and death are big themes in the story, it's a charming tale. Although Henry is tortured, having to repeatedly relive his mother's death, and knowing he can be zapped away from the woman he loves at any moment, staunch romantics will enjoy the premise of love transcending time and enduring all.

"The story is something that sticks with you. It stuck with me for a while, long after we finished shooting," says McAdams.

For Bana, who lives in Melbourne with his wife Rebecca and their two children Klaus (10) and Sophia (7), travelling and being away from home for long periods is all part of the job. "We're so used to it and I've surrendered to this lifestyle. I used to fight it a lot - but now I just go with it and accept it. Life's a lot easier like that," he says.

But as a family man, he can relate to Henry. "It was definitely helpful just to really understand what true love is. I think most of us, hopefully, can relate to that, but it's always an advantage when you're got that stuff in your life. And like life, it's not just all happy times. These people go through a life together."

Lowdown

What: The Time Traveler's Wife, based on Audrey Niffenegger's book about a man who shoots through time
Who: Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana
Opens: December 3