When it comes to love stories, most are made for women. Look at Gone with the Wind, The Way We Were, The Sound of Music or Titanic, all have strong female leads. The leading men have less screen time and with the exception of Rhett Butler are indecisive and weak like Hubbell Gardner and Captain Von Trapp or slightly feminine like Jack Dawson. They are little more than a fantasy for the female lead.
Somewhere in Time is a love story where the tables are turned. It is told from the man's point of view. The woman is the fantasy. However, it maintains the romantic feel and pace of a "woman's" love story. That is to say, there is no nudity.
Somewhere in Time tells the story of a man who falls in love with a dead woman via a photograph he comes upon. He wills himself to travel back in time to meet her. The reason this movie has such a guy angle is in how he first discovers his feeling for her; through the photo. I cannot count the many photos of beautiful women I have seen and imagined what they were like. Everything from Playboy magazines to photos of movie stars like Rita Hayworth, Raquel Welch or Marilyn Monroe have sparked my imagination. Yes, guys are mostly visually stimulated and all of us at one time or another have been distracted by a photo of a beautiful woman. This movie simply takes the distraction to the nth degree.
Time travel movies are almost always entertaining. The costumes and mannerisms are always interesting to watch. In this movie, Richard (Reeve) wears an outfit he believes matches the Victorian time he takes himself to. However, everyone else keeps wondering why he is in such outdated clothes.
The performances by Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are wonderfully sincere. It is in their performances that this movie is saved from being over the top. Reeve hugging a photo or Seymour yelling "Richard!" could have easily come off as hokey. Their chemistry, and particularly Reeve's emotional scenes of loss, and frustration, make this a wonderfully romantic film.
This movie also boasts a few great lines: "Come back to me." being its most famous. I personally like Seymour's, "...I am not a rug you can wipe your boots on." line.
Most of the movie was shot in or around The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, MI. The hotel and the surrounding island is as much a character in this movie as the Alps were in The Sound of Music. The hotel gets more screen time than most of the actors. It's a looming force that gives the movie much of its period look.
This is a love story with a dash of science fiction. The whole time travel issue is discussed, but don't look for any special effects. Subtlety is the theme to this movie. Now can someone explain to me just where that watch first came from?
