“Somewhere in Time” wishes to encapsulate undeniable romanticism through its narrative of a love story so exceptional, it defied the boundaries of time itself. Their love story was expansive enough to capture its audience, but the disbelief of traveling back in time for a one night stand tends to leave some doubts. The way the movie incorporates the mundane concept of time travel into the story desensitizes the audience toward caring about it.
That’s not to say the movie plot had to be dull, however. Time after Time is a movie that more people should focus on. This film covers a modern San Francisco, and around the love story, has a good amount of clever comedy between characters of different time periods. There is no doubting that some other film had parts that captured the audience’s attention, but ‘Somewhere in Time’ is not one of them.
The whole movie is soaked in solemnity. It is said that the lovers of these couples are enshrined within an overly excessive form of romantic nobility, and that Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody plays almost every time they get on screen. This is the kind of a romance so holy, so serious, and gigantic in proportions that it feels as if you must speak quietly when in its presence. Those romances are rather dull even to the megalomaniacal personas that are normally enmeshed within them.
Never the less, back to the movie. “Somewhere In Time” features Christopher Reeve as a Chicago playwright that visits a Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island where he notices a picture of an actress who had a figure in the hotel during the 1912. He is besotted, no, he is obsessed with her. He then proceeds to research the life of the actress, love her, learn from a so fictitious psychologist that time travel is possible, and then hypnotize himself in order to go back in time to 1912.
The film never explains if the playwright actually time travels or uses self hypnosis, but that is of little importance. Whether he is or not, he encounters a young actress portrayed stunningly by Jane Seymour. “Is it … you?” she breathes. “It is! It is!” A change like this is not subtle and with Rachmaninoff’s works, it is certainly detrimental. Especially with Rachmaninoff.
There is, of course, a villain. This character is portrayed by Christopher Plummer and is a fellow actor to the young actress who has been managing her career ever since she was sixteen. To his surprise, there is this odd strangle dressed man that shows up and start s meddling with his pupil. Some of the three characters engage in clever words as they trespass the beautiful grounds and rooms of the Grand Hotel. However, no major scenes show Seymour ‘dating’ Reeve and unbelievably, the movie does not take advantage of Reeve being from the future. Paradox after paradox, Reeve revealing this fact would turn into delightful proclamations that would go on forever. And, entirely neglecting all these possibilities is simply unacceptable.
As always, this is Reeve’s first film after “Superman”, and one has to say that he isn’t great in it. He looks somewhat dull, a little awkward; desperate lover who squints all the time out of sheer devotion for his actress. The entire film is so overly reverent, almost comically so, to its important theme that it boasts about.
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