Review of Same Time, Next Year (1978) by Lee M — 24 Feb 2008

American: One of my faves.

A loving couple meets annually for emotional and physical intimacy. They share everything except a marriage. Maybe that's why it worked!?

In 1981 my husband and I took a trip to the west coast and travelled north from San Francisco.

We stayed in an inn in Mendocino, California that was dramatically located on a spit high above the crashing waves of the Pacific. Each little cottage had a decorative theme; ours was serendipitously called, ?The Schoolhouse ? a perfect refuge for two traveling teachers. It was corny but charming to have a blackboard, a flag and the alphabet posted along the room. trust me, it was beautifully done. The food was lovely, the fireplace in the main house was great.

We never imagined that we were staying in the very place where ?Same time, Next Year? had been filmed in 1977 (and released in 1978).

This is a love story; there is nothing else you can call it. Here is a couple who are deeply in love, involved, committed and adoring of each other. Married. But not to each other.

They meet in 1951; George is a CPA in the area to do a client?s taxes. He has flown all the way in from New Jersey. Doris has stopped at the inn on her way to a Christian retreat. their eyes met in the dining room, their heads met on the couch in front of the fireplace (where my tush would later rest in July, 1981) and their bodies met in bed. Many subsequent times, through 1977.

They have met at the same place, the same time each year and passionately rekindle their friendship which begins to look more and more like a marriage. In fact, their marriage is perfect. They quarrel, laugh, cry, commiserate with complete understanding and support.

Each time reveal one good and one bad thing about their spouses. We know they love their families, we know they love their spouses, and we know they love each other.

Each time a scene changes and the couple is about to meet again, we see a montage of changes in history to provide a backdrop place marker of events. This deepens our understanding of the character. As the years pass, Doris finishes High School, joins a book club, goes to college, becomes a hippy, gets pregnant (by her husband, and comes to the tryst with an 8 month belly.

Of course she goes into labor just as she and George are about to ?work something out sexually.? She goes into business, becomes a grandmother. The evolution of the characters is poignant; George?s son is killed during a sniper attack in the Viet Nam War. He has never been able to cry, until hippy Doris embraces him and gives him permission?by crying with him.

Though the film is light, at times frothy, it is well written from play to screen. It has just the right romanticism and true love to make cheating acceptable, and reminds us that we are all human and vulnerable.

True love with more than one person is a possibility; friendship can be the springboard to anything.