Derided by critics when first released, the 1980 romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time found its audience over the decades and this year celebrated its 45th anniversary. It’s based on the novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay. A never handsomer Christopher Reeve stars as Richard Collier, a modern-day playwright who becomes obsessed with a portrait of an actress (Jane Seymour) from 1912. Earlier in his career, at an opening night party for one of his plays, an older woman approached him, handed him a gold pocket watch and said, “Come back to me.”
The film flashes forward eight years, with the now-successful Richard suffering from writer’s block. He decides to get away and ends up at the Grand Hotel on northern Michigan’s Mackinac Island. There he discovers the portrait of an unknown actress and sets out to find out about her. With the help of a kind clerk (Bill Erwin) at the hotel he discovers the woman’s name was Elise McKenna.
Richard visits her former residence and her one-time housekeeper Laura (Teresa Wright), resistant at first, tells him all about Elise. While there, he finds a book about time travel written by Dr. Gerald Finney (George Voskovec), a college professor he once had. Tracking him down, Richard is told by Finney that time travel is possible through self-hypnosis. Richard dons an early 20th-century-styled suit, fills his pockets with vintage coins and the pocket watch, and proceeds to try to will himself to 1912. He eventually succeeds (wouldn’t have been much of a film if he hadn’t). Once there, he seeks out Elise and finds her by a lake. Her first words to him are “Is it you?”
They are interrupted by William Robinson (Christopher Plummer), Elise’s manager who keeps a tight reign on the popular actress. He immediately dislikes Richard and the connection he senses between the two. Richard and Elise spend a magical day together and both know they have found their other. Richard goes to see Elise in her play, and during her performance she goes off script to speak of the love she yearns for while looking directly at Richard in the audience. It’s a beautiful speech filled with longing. William lures Richard away from the play with an urgent note and has two thugs beat him and tie him up in a barn. The next day Richard escapes, only to learn the theatre company has moved on. Elise, deciding to stay back to search for Richard, reunites with him. Fate, however, has a final trick to play on the couple.
The response to the film might have been mixed initially, but over the years–and especially through video store sales and rentals (remember them?)–Somewhere in Time found its people. The story works because of the chemistry between Reeve and Seymour. It also taps into the very universal human search for true and lasting love. And the beautiful John Barry score, highlighted by Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” adds to the romance.
Fan gatherings are held every year at the breathtaking Grand Hotel, where the picture is screened, vintage attire is worn, and walking tours of the film’s locations are offered. The still-stunning Jane Seymour has attended some of them.