Delayed Reaction: Somewhere in Time

Premise: A man finds a way to travel back in time to meet a woman from 70 years before who he has fallen in love with.

 

This is a weird movie. I want to adore it. There are aspects of it that could work like gangbusters for me. There are a couple foundational pieces that get in the way though.

 

I love the romantic idea of a man breaking the laws of physics and time to be with the woman he loves. I too can relate to the desire to travel back several decades for a chance with a 29-year-old Jane Seymour. I like the ways that the movie plays with the paradox of the time travel. It's also a clever way to do time travel that I haven't seen before. Basically, it's just immersion into the period and thinking hard enough about doing it. It's not scientific*, but it makes intuitive sense for what the movie is trying to do. Christopher Reeve and Janes Seymour are pretty lovely together. The score is terrific. These are all the pieces of an instant classic for me.

 

*Then again, Reeve's time travel method in Superman isn't any more thoughtful.

 

The problem I ran into is that the movie never really justifies the initial obsession. It doesn't convince me why he would be so profoundly and immediately obsessed with her. Also, given the one-sidedness of the relationship, it's downright stalker-ish. That's a big barrier to overcome. The movie attempts to justify it a bit with Seymour's character coming to Reeve in 1972 to tell him to come back to her. He's convinced to keep trying when he sees his signature in an old reservation book. It's still missing that initial spark though. Maybe if he found an old letter of hers or something, that could've helped. I just needed something to explain why he'd be so convinced that this relationship would be worth chasing.  Apparently, in the book this is based on, the Reeve character is dying of a brain tumor, which can potentially both explain the obsession and leave room for the time travel all being a delusion. I'm actually glad the movie doesn't include that, because I like the romantic notion of the time travel stuff really happening. It just really lacks a good a proper motivation.

I badly want someone to remake this movie though with someone like Domhnall Gleason and Rachel McAdams and...yep, I'm just making About Time again.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend