It's silly, it's superficial, it's so desperately earnest about its tale of time-spanning love that you almost wish for a cheap flatulence gag just to break the solemn mood. But there's something so unabashedly gushy and entertaining about Somewhere in Time that you can't begrudge its enduring popularity. The film has become a staple of romantic-movie lovers since its release in 1980, and endless showings on cable TV have turned it into a dubious classic of sorts--a three-hanky weeper that anyone can enjoy as a guilty pleasure or a beloved favorite, with no apologies necessary.

In his first film after the star-making success of Superman, Christopher Reeve stars as a contemporary playwright who visits a posh hotel and sees the portrait of an actress (Jane Seymour) who had performed there in 1912. He becomes obsessed with this beautiful woman and learns all he can about her, and then discovers a method of hypnotically transporting himself backward in time to meet her. "Is it ... you?" she says upon seeing the lovestruck playwright, and it's clearly a mutual attraction. But even the slightest reminder of the playwright's modern time can jar him from his seemingly real existence in the past, so his wonderful love affair is constantly just a step from being stolen away.

"Is it you?"

The ultimate modern-day four-hankie chick-flick, "Somewhere In Time", starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, and Teresa Wright (in a bit part) is an unabashedly sentimental, romantic, beautiful film that never fails to bring me to tears.

Reeve portrays Richard Collier, a young Chicago playwright, who, on the opening night of his first play, is approached by an elderly woman who pleads with him to "Come back to me" as she presses an antique watch into his hands. Intrigued, he starts to do some research and discovers that the woman was, in her youth, a beautiful and popular stage actress named Elise McKenna. He travels to a resort where she had performed, and becomes obsessed with a photographic portrait he sees on display there. (Next comes the really fantasy part) He decides he has to learn how he can travel back in time so that he may meet her, and by self-hypnosis, combined with other methods/props, they meet and fall in love. But trouble rears its ugly head in the form of Elise's overbearing and overprotective manager (Plummer).

Christopher Reeve is at his handsome prime here, and his performance is wonderfully Gary Cooperish-tall-awkward-naive-in love. Jane Seymour is at her most patrician, slyly feline best (her other best performance, IMO, has been in the TV remake of "East of Eden", which is actually a very fine film in its own right). Their performances, along with Christopher Plummer's, the beautiful soundtrack by John Barry, which is almost better than the film itself, and the costumes combine to make a great tearjerker along the lines of the old classics.

My all time favorite movie.

No other movie comes close to this one in capturing that eternal--magical-- unguarded moment between two lovers. If you cannot appreciate this movie, you have never really been in love, you've never really kissed someone you loved.

Have you ever kissed, and in the midst of it you felt yourself being lifted, your feet are off the ground, you get that sense of being SUSPENDED, up in the clouds, gently, slowly spinning, all inside one kiss. Well, this movie is like that experience.
If you want to be reminded of what that experience was like back then, watch this movie. If you want to know what it is like to truly LIVE, watch this movie.

Not Another One Like It !!

In my opinion, "Somewhere In Time" is the best and most beautiful love story ever put on the screen.

The music is so hauntingly beautiful, listening to it almost puts me in a trance... It sounds like an orchestra of angels in Heaven playing, with God as the Arranger, Composer, and Director. The music score is the life-blood of this movie. It is a MAJOR factor in the movie's overall effect.

I have to mention one scene... the scene where Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour)and Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) go out together for the first time in the horse drawn carriage... later they are out on the lawn where a man is doing a painting on an easel. The next scene shows a side-shot of Christopher Reeve studying something very intently and talking about it at the same time (but you can't hear what he is saying because they muted it out)... in this scene Jane Seymour is facing him but is also facing very much toward the camera, wearing a beautiful dress, white gloves, red lipstick, and a big, beautiful hat... the camera moves in closer and closer toward her face, she blinks her eyes and smiles as she looks intently at her newly found love... In this scene of only about 10 - 15 seconds, JANE SEYMOUR IS SO ** INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL ** THERE ARE SIMPLY NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE HER. SHE LOOKS LITERALLY PERFECT. HER BEAUTY IS BEYOND COMPARE (This scene I am referring to is immediately before the scene where they are walking together on the shoreline in the distance toward the big, red lighthouse).

And lastly, it also occurred to me that "Somewhere In Time" is quite possibly the most passionate love story/movie ever made without ANY ** explicit ** sexual scenes... and I am most thankful it didn't have any... it would have greatly taken away from, if not ruined, the entire movie.

Obviously, I recommend it very highly. But it is still always a good idea to rent first, to be sure you want it for keeps, then buy it if you do.