Rachel McAdams has played a surprising number of characters who are love interests to time travelers, but some of her time-traveling movies are better than others. The Academy Award nominee has had a long and storied career that launched in earnest when she starred as Regina George in 2004’s Mean Girls.

That same year, McAdams would land the co-starring role in The Notebook, and she quickly established herself as the go-to actor for romantic dramas. However, she has yet to be typecast into certain roles, and she’s a rare Hollywood star who has truly dabbled in a plethora of genres.

2015’s Spotlight landed McAdams her only Academy Award nomination so far, but she’s snagged her fair share of major titles besides the Oscars. In between blockbusters and gripping dramas, McAdams has carved out a niche for herself in an oddly specific subsection of movies.

Perhaps the only actor to ever fit this description, McAdams has become the actor most likely to star in a film where she is in love with a time traveler. Despite the novelty of the concept, McAdams has starred in an unusual number of movies that fit that description. Oddly enough, many of these movies are actually pretty good.

5

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

McAdams’ First Brush With Time Travel

2009’s The Time Traveler’s Wife is perhaps the most on-the-nose example of the McAdams time travel trend, and the film is far from great. The love story is based on the eponymous novel by Audrey Niffenegger, and concerns a man (Eric Bana) with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to shift through time completely out of his control.

The film’s odd premise is anchored by an interesting love story idea, in which McAdams’ Clare keeps meeting Bana’s Henry at different points in her lifetime. However, they’re essentially meant to be, because Henry has seen various points in time in which they are together. The thesis statement is that love is eternal, but the movie gets muddled.

The Time Traveler’s Wife suffers from some major structural issues, and the constant jumping through time forces the story to stay on the backfoot. Every scene is an exposition dump, with Henry or Clare repeatedly having to catch each other (and subsequently the audience) up to what’s going on.

McAdams and Bana do have decent chemistry, though, and it’s certainly not the worst romance film of all time. However, its heady idea gets in the way of the beautiful simplicity that makes love stories so compelling to watch. McAdams is quite active in the plot, especially compared to her other time travel love stories that mostly keep her sidelined.

4

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

McAdams Gets To Participate This Time

Calling Doctor Strange a time traveler is a bit simplistic, and the Sorcerer Supreme spends much of In The Multiverse of Madness jumping from one universe to the next. The sequel to the 2016 standalone film saw Benedict Cumberbatch reprise his title role, and Rachel McAdams also returned as Strange’s former love, Christine Palmer.

In the film, Strange and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) find themselves bouncing from one alternate Earth to the next, in order to evade other versions of Strange who want to destroy the multiverse. Like its predecessor, the Doctor Strange sequel utilizes the full range of high-strangeness that the long-running comic book character brings to the Marvel Universe.

Unfortunately, its strongest aspects also drag the movie down, and copious fan service comes at the cost of an engaging plot or compelling characters. Unlike other MCU movies which work as standalone stories, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is so wrapped up in other Marvel Universe happenings that it can be confusing for casual viewers.

McAdams does get more to do in the sequel than she did in the original, and she’s given the opportunity to explore another side of Christine Palmer by playing an alternate Earth version. She’s a multiverse expert in the story, so she has something useful to contribute to Strange’s journey. Nevertheless, she’s only a small part of an overstuffed movie.

3

About Time (2013)

A More Coherent Example Of A Time Travel Love Story

About Time

7/10

Release Date

September 4, 2013

Runtime

123 minutes

Director

Richard Curtis

Writers

Richard Curtis

By the time she starred in About Time, Rachel McAdams was already a veteran of time travel movies, and About Time feels like a stronger second draft of The Time Traveler’s Wife from a few years earlier. McAdams shares the screen with Domhnall Gleeson, and the time travel aspects are a tad more focused than in the aforementioned 2009 film.

The Richard Curtis film follows a young man (Gleeson) who learns that the men in his family possess the gift of time travel. In order to improve his life, he decides to use his power to woo a woman (McAdams), but he soon learns that even his great gift has serious limitations.

About Time understands the rules of time travel much better than other examples of the sci-fi subgenre, and it stands as a strong love story first. Mary and Tim’s relationship is the focus, and the time travel doesn’t distract from what’s most important. There is also a clever subversion of expectation that makes for more compelling viewing.

McAdams and Gleeson are a great pairing, and her being the fish-out-of-water in the situation doesn’t remove her from the narrative. In fact, the audience learns along with Mary, which helps to endear the viewer to her even more. Since About Time also includes elements of tragedy, McAdams is really able to show some range too.

2

Doctor Strange (2016)

Rachel McAdams Enters The MCU

Doctor Strange

8/10

Release Date

November 4, 2016

Runtime

115 minutes

Director

Scott Derrickson

Writers

C. Robert Cargill, Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson

Producers

Charles Newirth, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Stan Lee, Stephen Broussard, Victoria Alonso

The MCU’s Phase Three was nearly perfect, and each film was either a compelling standalone story or a piece of a much larger puzzle. Doctor Strange was released early in the phase, and finally introduced Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme into the mix after nearly 10 years of MCU movies.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the Master of the Mystic Arts, and he’s joined by a strong cast that includes Benedict Wong and Rachel McAdams. Doctor Strange is an origin story, exploring how the arrogant surgeon went from the top of the world, to the gutter, to exploring magic in order to become a bona fide superhero.

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Like most MCU origin stories, Doctor Strange features a love interest for the main character, and McAdams made for a great addition to the cinematic world. She plays Dr. Christine Palmer, Strange’s colleague and lover who isn’t seen much throughout the film. Unfortunately, McAdams is largely wasted, and she isn’t given a lot to do.

The sequel rectified that problem, but Doctor Strange is certainly a better film than its successor. The narrative is much clearer, and Strange’s origin is different from the usual MCU formula. Instead of simply fighting a bigger version of himself like nearly every other MCU introduction, Strange’s journey throughout the film is essentially about the character’s weaknesses.

1

Midnight In Paris (2011)

An Unorthodox Time Travel Story

Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris wasn’t the director’s first brush with science fiction ideas, but there’s a lyrical quality to the movie that deviates from the usual hard sci-fi of other time travel stories. The 2011 critical darling is about romance, but it’s more about romantic nostalgia for the past, and the richness of a time gone by.

Owen Wilson stars as a nostalgic writer who is visiting Paris with his fiancée (McAdams) and her family. Longing to see Paris as it was, Gil is suddenly transported to the 1920s every night at midnight, where he meets many of the city’s most famous artists and thinkers from that era.

The simple and playful concept is elevated by a laundry list of amazing actors in the ensemble, and there is a clear dichotomy between the Paris of the present and the city from the ’20s. Rachel McAdams steps out of her comfort zone to play Inez, and she’s generally a much less likable character than she’s usually cast as.

Midnight in Paris is undoubtedly Rachel McAdams‘ best time travel romance film, and though she is left largely out of the actual time travel, she gets to add so much more to the story. She isn’t a generic love interest or protagonist, and she gets to flex a bit of her acting muscle alongside Wilson.