Jeannot Szwarc's "Somewhere in Time" is a well made movie with a very extensive amount of flaws and though it isn't one of the best film romances I've ever seen it is definitely very creative and truly original. Christopher Reeve stars as Richard Collier a Chicago playwright who in the beginning of the movie meets an old woman named Elise McKenna (Susan French) in 1972 while he is still in college and she gives him her watch and says the words "Come back to me" and Collier wonders what she means by that for years even after her death. Now the movie is set in 1979 and Collier is working on a play and he is touring a museum and finds an old picture frame on the wall but it doesn't have a name plate on it. So he goes to this old man named Arthur (Bill Erwin) who works at the hotel and he tells Collier that the woman in the picture is Elise McKenna, and he then tries to get as much information about her as he possibly can from reading books, and even going to her house to ask her maid named Laura Roberts (Teresa Wright) and she tells him things about her such as what she was like and all that sort of stuff, and then he goes to his old philosophy professor and asks him about the possibilities of time travel and is told that he has to do self hypnosis. After that he is back in 1912 and sees the younger version of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) and introduces himself to her and they fall in love with each other but not without dealing with her paranoid manager named William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer) who is totally in love with McKenna and is thinking that Collier would ruin her career as an actress. Everything beyond this point I will not spoil because I feel that the plot elements afterword are too crucial to the story to spoil. The film is based on Richard Matheson's novel "Bid Time Return" and to compare this to other Matheson adaptations that I've seen such as "The Last Man on Earth" and "I Am Legend" as well as great dramatic romantic tales such as "Out of Africa", "Pride and Prejudice" as well as many others this one is a disappointment, the performances aren't very convincing ( with the exceptions of Reeve, Seymour, and Wright who are very good) especially by Christopher Plummer who is usually a very good actor but he sounds very robotic here, also the dialogue in the scenes before the time travel and with Collier and the younger McKenna, is very bland, wooden, and totally boring. This isn't a bad movie or a good movie but a decent one, and it isn't one of the best films of 1980, and to be honest it is a silly movie in the beginning and also is overrated film.

Somewhere In Time - It is universally panned by the critics, but loved by the audience. I wonder if I, also, would pan the film, as a paid critic, because there are flaws, and I might not want to wear my heart on my sleeve, and possibly diminish myself in the eyes of my readers. I think there were some harsh critics, who secretly loved the movie, or grew to love it, over the years. This movie played out like 'The Matrix.' People didn't get it. When both went out in VHS format, a cult following ensued. To be fair, 'Somewhere In Time' opened during a writers strike, and saw one week in the theaters, with no opportunity to promote it, prior to opening. My dad, a big sci-fi and Richard Matheson fan, was disappointed. I loved it, and completely enveloped myself in this romantic fantasy. Everything was going great, and then the bottom dropped out, and you fell with Richard in such a tremendous loss, that he had worked so hard to get. It's no wonder he sat on that chair, like a stone...his eyes red from tears, and his complexion, ghost white. The ending is the reverse of 'The Ghost and Mrs Muir.' Ultimately, a happy ending, with a mixture of wistful sadness.

It's hard to watch this movie without tears. It's also hard to think of a love story that requires you to travel through time to reunite with your loved one. In my opinion, that may be the biggest test of love.I also think that's the true test of an older film. I watched this movie when I was a child, and it affected me then. I re-watched this film tonight and it affected me now.This movie is timeless (no pun intended).If you've ever lost a loved one, regardless of the circumstance, prepare for a trip down memory lane if you watch this, as you struggle to realize your best chance to reunite with this person is in the afterlife.

This is the movie that inspires me. Somewhere In Time fascinated me since I was a kid. The soundtrack, as the story in fact, have something that sounds like an eternal reminder, as something given, a thing without beginning and without end. Later I learned that it was Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody based on a Paganini Caprice. A film like a dream... A film that you can never forget... A film that you will carry with you ... as long you live, so... like a jewel. The most beautiful love story ever, suspended between two parallel worlds... You can not be a fan of romantic movies, if you have not watched it... You will remain with this movie in your heart, forever.