In the years since 2006's preposterous (and preposterously romantic) "The Lake House," many have learned to embrace their inner suckers and allow just about any sweet-talking chick flick to have its way with them. The least we can do is make our emotional manipulation easier, since our real-life romantic entanglements have apparently become such cakewalks that cinema is now forced to invent new and scientifically dubious complications to them just to get the ol' tear ducts a-flowing. It's clear from the title that "The Time Traveler's Wife" is dying to both pluck at your heartstrings and blow your mind, but this uninvolving sci-fi romance is unlikely to do much of either, unless confusion and boredom turn you on.

Former "Hulk" Eric Bana stars as Henry, a Chicago librarian who is understandably bummed over his "genetic anomaly," which causes him to involuntarily leave the present day and drop in on different points in his past and his future, then return just as abruptly to his everyday life. Though he has no control over his travels, the most inconvenient part might be the nakedness; his clothes crumple in a heap, unable to make it through the space-time continuum, so Henry spends most of his time scrambling for something to wear. But things begin looking up for Henry one day when he's accosted by Clare (Rachel McAdams, "State of Play"), an intense, beautiful woman who claims to have known him her whole life, and after a snoop through his medicine cabinet, they're in love.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" follows Henry and Clare through their days together, with Henry's sudden departures and returns mostly tolerated by the adoring Clare, her one tantrum mollified when Henry provides her with winning lottery numbers. And though actual conflict arises in the form of Clare's desire to have a baby despite Henry's time-travel gene, their fascinating problem just seems dull. The always excellent McAdams - no stranger to a proper weepie, if you've ever seen "The Notebook" - does what she can with her underwritten part, but she's forced to play against perhaps the most lifeless leading man around. Bana, who has thus far been unsuccessful in replicating the charisma that got him noticed in the 2000 Australia film "Chopper," plays Henry as a crabby mope, not surprising considering the circumstances but hardly compelling and certainly nothing to swoon over.

Things do get a little unintentionally creepy whenever adult Henry visits young Clare in the past, but director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (who has handled metaphysical kinks with "Ghost") already have an uphill battle with the material, charged with keeping the audience from thinking too much while making the implausible romantic. Based on the 2003 bestseller by Audrey Niffenegger (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I have never read and now probably won't), "The Time Traveler's Wife" seems to be trying to convey something about the impermanence yet endurability of love, but what it actually says is a man will leave without warning, and once he's gone, guess who has to fold his clothes? You do, my friend. You do.