Somewhere in Time

The 1980 American romance, Somewhere in Time, may not seem like a movie that would house a critical reception so viscerally negative that it would rival any number of bottom tier pictures, but this film was totally destroyed by critics who saw it as a flimsy hoaky love story with more sap than a typical oak. While it also failed at the box office due to an actor’s strike going on around the same time which left Universal and subsequently the actors being unable to film and produce advertising, the movie managed to build a small but vocal enough cult following after the fact, turning it into this little underground gem that few know about, but those that do, hold it in warm regards. For a movie that seems this inconsequential, it’s interesting seeing how strongly people reacted to it. After debuting his first play, college student Richard Collier (played by Christopher Reeves) is approached by a random old woman who cryptically calls to him and gives him a pocket watch before disappearing and passing away. After eight years have passed, a now-successful Richard is struggling with creating his next play and needs a distraction to cool his head, deciding to retreat to The Grand Hotel in order to cure his writer’s block. While looking through the building’s gallery which details its history, he becomes enamored with a vintage photograph of Elise McKenna (played by Jane Seymour), an actress from the early 1900s, and instantly becomes smitten with her and desperately tries to find a way to return to that time period to be with her. After discovering a unique method of travelling back in time through the use of self-suggestion, Richard ends up in 1912 and tries to talk with Elise, but he is constantly being brushed aside by Elise’s manager, William Robinson (played by Christopher Plummer) who views him as a danger to her stardom. Once they meet and after a few initial hesitations, the two start to hit it off and despite literally existing in two separate time periods, they will see if they can make this love work out. Somewhere in Time isn’t a great movie as much as it isn’t an awful movie, it is a painfully passable movie with nothing really good or bad to speak of in either direction, which in some way provides validation for both its thrashers and its treasurers.

The film is based on the 1975 science fiction novel written by well-known author, Richard Matheson, who was also known for writing the 1954 sci-fi classic, I Am Legend, and creating screenplays for properties like The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, The Raven, House of Usher, and several Twilight Zone episodes. With this knowledge of his style of writing whether for his own creations or for adapting someone else’s, the film’s bizarre premise and unique atmosphere suddenly clicks a lot more, and what at first seems like a really strange avenue for a romance to take, is moreso a cryptic sci-fi tale with a tragic love affair at its centre, which starts to poke at some of the pros and cons with this film. As a story, the novel does a better job at handling its premise in a way that gives it a bittersweet but still creative personality, and works with some of its ideas and motivations a bit better (Richard in the novel is dying of a tumour and does this as a desperate last act, whereas the movie version of Richard just seems like a pinning simp who has nothing better to do with his life), but to the film’s credit, it isn’t as outlandish to follow as you’d expect. While it has toned down some of its more complicated directions and limits the mental exploration and surreal existential dread that the story houses in exchange for something along the lines of a fairy tale with a tragic ending, it does lead itself in that direction perfectly fine and without fully losing that unique edge. The film’s director is Jeannot Szwarc, who had previously directed Jaws 2, and would later go on to direct films like Supergirl and Santa Clause: The Movie, all movies that while not very good, do have a certain atmosphere to them that feels distinctly 70s and houses an odd spaciness to its visual design and music. While these qualities are certainly strange and even unnecessary in these listed options, it does help bring some other-worldliness to this picture and matches the oddness that comes from the initial premise, even if the scripting misses a lot of chances to further explore concepts, ideas, and characters for the sake of a more streamlined romance (which is so bizarre as Matheson himself wrote the screenplay). Whether it was to touch up his work to appeal more to casual moviegoers against his usual fare of content, or if it was just a way to subvert the story in a sense that was much clearer and a little less depressing is hard to say, but while it is very by-the-numbers and not the most experimental, it isn’t poorly handled.

The characters for this story are pretty sparse and don’t contain a lot of depth to them whether due to being background roles, or just being stripped back from their original counterparts, but the acting overall manages to find a right balance between common and quirky to feel lively and relatable enough to watch. You can feel this the most with the two leads, as despite both Richard and Elise being written as pretty flat characters, both Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour do make these two likeable enough on their own and even as a couple. This does come with a few problems however, as this romance is not set up in a way that feels very identifiable in the least. Even firstly ignoring the fact that this man literally decided to give up his entire life in the present to magically will himself into the past to be with a woman he has literally only seen once in a picture, the manner in which he pursues her once he arrives is nothing short of stalker territory. This was back in the time when a man constantly going after a woman until they agree to a date was seen as an admirable trait, but now it just seems desperate and slightly pathetic, so it wasn’t off to a great start. The two barely have much time to interact as along with the film’s brisk pace, short running time and need to jump through several cliched turmoils in order to reach the final meet-cute, it doesn’t really give them time to even act like a couple outside of one scene near the end. With that said though, the two actually have good chemistry with each other (Reeves and Seymour did fall in love while filming the movie which no doubt assisted with that) and Reeve’s charming dorky ‘’every-man’’ persona against Seymour’s dignified yet free-spirited composure makes for a good pairing. There aren’t many other people in the film, but a few do stand out. People like Teresa Wright, Bill Erwin, George Voskovec and Susan French do nice enough standing out with very minor roles, and Christopher Plummer at first almost seems completely in the right for shielding Richard from Elise (guy literally just looks like a creepy stalker), but later on is forced into the role of obvious antagonist when his actions become needlessly extreme (although he is written much better than other cliched versions of this type have been, to his credit).

While the movie doesn’t really stretch the realms of reality like other sci-fi or creepy stories that Matheson would’ve created or adapted previously, there are a few elements that help it from looking like a completely bland picture. As previously mentioned, the director’s past and future work on movies that have a weirder look to them from a filmmaking perspective does come through here with some of the washed-out locations and harsh lighting creating an almost ghostly sense of space that feels unreal several times throughout. The production design by Seymour Klate, set decoration by Mary Ann Biddle and costume design by Jean-Pierre Dorléac does a good job at portraying both periods and how they are similar in some ways, but very different in terms of apparel and energy. Its again not taken to a level that would be inventively interesting to dissect or even in a way that feels cinematically altered enough to truly stand out (it’s played a little too straight to get creative or even overly commercial with its portrayal), but it is tweaked in a sense that matches the romantic vibe the story is going for. Even though the film has its sadder moments, it is an overwhelming cheery film in parts and everything from how the actors looks and talk, to how the film is paced, shot, and even scored definitely gives off that schmaltzy feeling that seemed to a distinct point of irritation for certain critics who watched it. On the one hand, it’s odd to expect a romance of the era to not include at least a hint of sappiness (especially given the kind of actors that were chosen), but while most of these qualities aren’t distractingly obvious, the score by John Barry does fall in that territory a little too hard due to how pronounced and overtly sappy it can be. It does calm down a bit as the movie continues, but it’s a noticeable piece of music in a bad way.

Somewhere in Time honestly feels like it would’ve worked better in a shorter format. With the writer’s past experience with The Twilight Zone, which thrived on cryptic surrealism that was told through gothic and expertly crafted short vignettes that could equal parts horrify and enlighten, this premise feels prime for that kind of presentation with a shorter running time, an atmosphere that is allowed to go full-scale weird and unabashedly obscure without the restraints of reality, and can have performers that don’t have to be concerned about typical filmmaking cliches and can instead get lost in the extremity of the situation. But instead, the film is a totally acceptable romance film that definitely doesn’t deserve the massive hatred it received from critics, but it’s hard to say that it deserved its cult resurgence either. It has charming actors, a style that is odd enough to make the film feel a little bit different, and while paint-by-numbers in many areas of the script, still houses a sentimental but meaner edge to its conclusion to finish things off in at least a memorable way, so while a little hard to keep in the realms of history, it doesn’t deserve to be entirely shut out either and could maybe even appeal to those that are willing to dip a toe into the bizarre (at least a tip top anyway). Not for everybody, but isn’t the garbage dumb many critics claim it to be, if this past memory has the chance to cause someone extreme delight or extreme annoyance, you will have to be the judge of which is more likely.