Romancefest 2017: Somewhere in Time

I'm glad I finally sat down to watch SOMEWHERE IN TIME because I've been wanting to see it for a while. Why? Because it stars Superman himself, Christopher Reeve. I've seen far too few Christopher Reeve movies, and this is probably the most notable one outside of the SUPERMAN series, so here we go.

Reeve stars as a young playwright. As the movie opens, he's a college student celebrating the opening of his new play when he's approached by a mysterious old woman (Susan French) who gifts him with a pocket watch and says, "Come back to me." Later that night she dies.

Flash forward 8 years and Reeve is a successful playwright with writer's block. He escapes Chicago and impulsively stays at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in hopes of clearing his block. Upon arriving at the hotel he sees the portrait of an actress who performed at the hotel in 1912 and feels himself drawn to it. Who is she? Why is he drawn to her? He has to investigate.

For a variety of reasons Reeve becomes increasingly convinced he somehow visited the hotel in the past, in 1912, met the actress, and had a relationship with her. He visits a college professor with knowledge of time travel (George Voskovec) and learns that he might be able to hypnotize himself into traveling back in time.

Of course, since this is a movie, this device works, and Reeve is able to return to 1912 and meet the actress (Jane Seymour) who is struggling with an overbearing manager (Christopher Plummer) but seems to recognize him as he arrives with a wistful, "Is it you?"

I loved the first half of this movie. Christopher Reeve is the perfect guy to cast as a romantic who earnestly believes he can travel through time to be with the woman he loves. He just has that ability to seem optimistic and intelligent at the same time. His investigation at the hotel is intriguing, and the sequences involving his attempts to travel through time are also interesting.

The problem is, when he gets to 1912, things fall a little flat. Although the great John Barry score soars, and although it's sweet when Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour meet, there's no real romance here. It's all very romantic, to be sure, but there are no specifics to latch onto. Why does Reeve like Seymour and why does Seymour like Reeve? They're just destined to be together. That's nice to say in love notes but it's boring on the big screen. Who cares about destiny when you could have cute scenes where the two characters explore each others' personalities and share experiences that draw them together? Not me.