Somewhere in Time

SOMEWHERE IN TIME (PG)

D: Jeannot Szwarc

Universal/Rastar (Stephen Deutsch)

US 1980

104 mins

Romance/Fantasy

W: Richard Matheson [based on his novel "Bid Time Return"]

DP: Isadore Mankofsky

Ed: Jeff Gourson

Mus: John Barry

PD: Seymour Klate

Cos: Jean-Pierre Dorleac

Christopher Reeve (Richard Collier), Jane Seymour (Elisa McKenna), Christopher Plummer (William Fawcett Robinson), Teresa Wright (Laura Roberts)

I wouldn’t like to typecast an actor, but unfortunately, when it comes to Christopher Reeve, I just can’t buy him as any other character aside from Superman (or Clark Kent). Perhaps this is because I was at a very young age when I first watched him in the role which made him a household name and I naturally make the same connection whenever I see him in anything else. Despite this, he is a fine actor and he doesn’t do a bad job in this fantasy-romance, it’s just that the film didn’t strike a chord with me.

The plot sees a stage playwright fall in love with an old photograph of an actress whilst staying at a seaside hotel and finds a way to travel back in time to romance her.

While the cinematography, sets and costume design are all fine, the premise of the film could have worked much better had the film been released a decade earlier, but Christopher Reeve failing to convince me and Jane Seymour given very little to do, this feels like a beautifully wrapped present with nothing in it.

Mawkish and saccharine, though these words alone could be used to describe John Barry's music score which seems to play incessantly throughout the movie.

An old-fashioned love story which probably would have been better suited had it been made around the 1950's.

I imagine this film would have its fans, I just wasn’t one of them.

5/10