Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early twentieth century. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.
Somewhere in Time is a lush, romantically-tinged fantasy with a genuinely distinctive atmosphere anchored by the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, which gives the film an almost dreamlike, timeless quality. The cinematography by Isidore Mankofsky is the film's standout element — the period recreation and the island's natural beauty are captured with exceptional warmth and elegance. The plot is a gentle, melancholy romance with a satisfying internal logic to its time-travel conceit (self-hypnosis via immersion), though it remains fairly slight in dramatic stakes. Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are appealing and earnest, delivering performances that are emotionally sincere if not technically remarkable. The film's novelty lies in its uniquely quiet, old-fashioned romantic sensibility — neither blockbuster nor art film, but a cult object with a devoted following — though it doesn't break radical new ground. The ending, while emotionally effective and bittersweet, is somewhat abrupt and relies on a well-worn tragic-romance resolution.