Somewhere in Time (1980) 104m.
I wasn't too enthusiastic about this change of pace from writer Richard Matheson after a diet of his sharp sci-fi and horror tales, but later viewings have softened my views. Terribly romantic story of two star-crossed lovers goes one up on the Bard by separating them not by distance or walls, but by time. What do you do when your lover lives 68 years in the past? That's what we find out when young Chicago playwright Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve), like Dana Andrews in LAURA, falls in love with the alluring Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) after seeing her portrait. The most daring stroke of the film (and novel) is to make the time travel aspect completely non-scientific: Reeve simply wills himself back to 1912. It sounds laughable, but suits the mood of the film perfectly - I believe the reason why SOMEWHERE IN TIME has attracted its devoted following is not because of the Reeve/Seymour romance itself but that it so assuredly affirms that love is a force to which the laws of the universe cannot apply. Who wouldn't want to do what Reeve does, to create simultaneity of time that in effect becomes a kind of eternal youth, without the prerequisite, impenetrable science?
Film's premise, lead characters, and magnificent backdrop (the Grand Hotel of Michigan's Mackinac Island) has made it popular with romantics, but personally I find Reeve's efforts to investigate and reach Seymour's past more involving than his arrival. It's the nature of fantasy to make the fantasizing the best part of the journey - when it's actualised it is over. That's why I would have liked to see Reeve exploring his new, exciting environment for a while instead of heading straight for Seymour's door. The screenplay doesn't give him much of a choice, however - the compressed timeframe of the story (and running time of the movie) means that the two protagonists don't have long to spend together and fall in love. It doesn't really stretch their credibility - the time travel element has already planted the idea of 'destiny' in our minds for us to accept Richard and Elise as a couple. Their final separation scene is startling and, coming when it does, highly effective. Other scenes are more obviously manipulative but still work: Elise squealing "Richard!" upon sighting him from the distance; Richard giving Elise just the right kind of smile for her portrait; and, in a highlight, Elise slipping out of character onstage to ruminate about the man she loves.
Film's ending is a little sappy but points the way directly to Matheson's following work, the life-after-death fantasy 'What Dreams May Come'. Matheson himself has a walk-on when Reeve passes him outside the hotel. Obviously the best way to see this film is at the Grand Hotel itself, where SOMEWHERE IN TIME weekends have become an annual event for the film's huge fan base. In-joke: Reeve reads a book entitled 'Travels Through Time', authored by Dr Finney - a reference to fantasy writer Jack Finney, author of a number of time travel stories and novels.
sburridge@hotmail.com
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