Review of Somewhere in Time (1980) by Bill Y — 06 Apr 2018

Somewhere in Time, much like how I felt about Love Story, is a film that shouldn't work but does anyway. The story follows a playwright named Richard Collier who back in 1972 had a mysterious encounter with an old woman after his first play who gives him a pocket watch, telling him, "Come back to me.

" 8 years later, he is struggling with writer's block, and out of curiosity, he decides to stay at the Grand Hotel (Which was by his old college). In the history room, he sees a picture of a beautiful actress named Elise McKenna and he becomes obsessed with her (He even learns that she was the old woman who gave him the pocket watch was Elise).

He learns all he can about her and decides to try and go back in time to 1912 (When she performed at the Grand Hotel) so that he can be with her. He manages to do so, but discovers that pursuing her will be difficult because of her manager who wants her to only pursue her acting career, rather than find love.

I know, it's clearly sentimental, overtly cliched, and I felt that it ended too abruptly without addressing other obvious issues (What will Richard do to support them? How would they be compatible given the vast era differences between them?).

Despite plot issues and sentimentality that would normally put me off, Somewhere in Time works beautifully because of the direction, the brilliant performances by Christopher Reed and Jane Seymour, and the beautiful music by John Barry.

It's a film that will manage to tug at your heartstrings and I rather enjoyed it in spite of its issues. It's a wonderful, underrated romantic drama of the 80's.