Rachel McAdams finds dimension in 'The Time Traveler's Wife"

Rachel McAdams has a smile like a magnesium flash and legs longer than a Friday night drive to the Hamptons. But she may be a wanderer in time: While contemporary Hollywood does back flips to get the attention of pimply males, McAdams recalls an era when women in hats ruled the box office, and dramas dropped like ripe figs from the bountiful orchards of the Warner brothers.

Is it a cosmic coincidence that her new film, "The Time Traveler's Wife," includes a clip of Bette Davis in that classic weeper "Dark Victory"? McAdams might have been Davis. Or Joan Crawford. Alas, she lives in the wrong period of cinema history: She may play the title character, and owns the face gazing out of the poster, but she hasn't quite gotten the keys to the kingdom.

"I think it ebbs and flows," the 30-year-old actress said, smiling, during an interview in Manhattan. "I think of this film as a two-hander, definitely. But Warner Bros. has stated quite specifically that they don't really make movies where females are the protagonist, which I think is really sad and unfortunate. Because I think women can definitely open films. It's happening more and more."

Schwentke got his clip, and a performance out of McAdams that is long on close-ups and rooted in emotion and conviction. It has to be. The premise is ridiculous. ("Hopefully," Schwentke said, "one understands it's just kind of standing for all sorts of other things.") McAdams said Schwentke — whose films include the Jodie Foster thriller "Flightplan" — was interested in the subtleties of love and a depth of feeling, rather than the showiness of it. "I remember saying, 'When do I get to cry and scream and throw myself across the room?'"‰" McAdams said. Schwentke told her it wasn't that kind of thing. "He said, 'You have to serve a very different kind of real-life relationship and we need to try to get as close as we can without any gimmicks, dramatic entrances or door slamming.'"‰"