'Somewhere In Time (1980)' is a really misjudged movie, one that basically garners the exact opposite reaction than it ought to. Though it's generally well-made and has a strong initial concept, its story is so strange, strained and full of bizarre decisions that it's difficult to engage with on any level other than pure bemusement. Its issues all lie in its story. It has decent acting, direction and, even, dialogue but its narrative is so shoddy that it sinks the entire endeavour. It has three obvious problems. The first and most detrimental is the fact that its hero is, essentially, a stalker. He takes one look at a photograph of an actress from the twenties and develops an instant obsession with her, making the odd logical leap that he can - and must - bend space and time itself in order to meet her. The guy just comes across as plain weird, to be honest. Plus, the story considers his behaviour to be oh so romantic when in reality it's oh so inappropriate. Once he makes it to the same decade as her, he pesters her - despite multiple rejections - into spending some time with him. After this happens, the piece becomes a lot less disturbing. The eventually mutual relationship that develops is relatively charming, if rushed, and the story starts to head into more comfortable romantic territory, with a jealous manager threatening the come between the focal pair in a typical yet welcome way. The second of the flick's major issues, which pales in comparison to the first, is the actual method of time travel it employs. It's just completely unbelievable. Of course, time travel itself is an inherently fantastical concept and, in pretty much every instance I can think of, you just have to sort of 'go with it'. However, the mechanics of manipulating time are usually either completely glossed over ("oh look, a magic painting") or hand-waved away with a little sci-fi jargon ("oh look, a flux capacitor"), even in movies which aim to explore said mechanics and their consequences. Here, we're asked to believe that our hero can physically transport himself across the ages simply by immersing himself in period-appropriate props and wishing it would be so. Seeing him toss and turn, sweaty and frustrated, trying to will himself back through time is just plain funny (and it isn't supposed to be). The only way it 'makes sense' is if everything that follows is some sort of fever dream; the physical evidence of his trip could be chocked up to coincidence and hallucination. However, this reading just makes the narrative seem, well, relentlessly sad. It isn't about a time-warping romance, it's about a mentally ill man's decline into madness. Surely, this isn't what the picture is trying to portray? Like I said, though, this is a far smaller problem than the lead's obsessive tendencies because, after a certain point, you can almost totally ignore it. The third issue is the ending. I won't discuss it in detail so as not to spoil it, but I will say that it represents an incredibly strange and somewhat disconcerting effort for the piece to have its cake and eat it, too. I can't quite express how off base and rushed it is, really. Overall, though the picture isn't a terrible in-the-moment experience and you can laugh at it now and again, it's a weird and uninspiring affair with some pretty major script problems. Its score absolutely slaps, though. 4/10.
Review of Somewhere in Time
