I think there are some inconsistencies or weird things in the movie. Things that have kept me from thinking this was a great movie. One is the fact that there is no explanation of how they have supposed to have met for her to go back in time. Yes we all know, time-travel movies have lots of plot holes and you have to suspend your disbelief, but usually they do give you a bit to work with.
For example: the movie that led me to buy this was the comments on the board for The Two World Of Jennie Logan, made before this one. At least there, the reason why the first goes back in time is putting on a dress she finds in the old house.
Back To The Future: build a time-machine.
Here we have Reeve who wants to go back in time because an old lady gave him a watch (a watch that cannot exist). In a way, I even thought, maybe she is herself a time-traveller (as she read the book many times), but there is no indication of this, although the fact that she chose to look him up when she was adult enough to comprehend love and be of legal age.
This is the reason why even when they meet and she has no idea who she is, and he also has no reason to think he loves or knows her at all (no hints are given in the movie to be honest) during the whole movie, makes the movie hard to believe.
Personally, I found it all weird and not that enjoyable, until I basically let go of all this in the scene when she finds him back after the show (which is a great scene). And once he disappears back in the future until the end it's a total sob-fest for me, it's a top-notch thing there, and Reeve looks so genuine in those scenes, that it makes up for the whole movie before.
It's the first time I watched a making-of right after watching a movie for the first time. Watching the hour-long making of made me appreciate the movie a bit more, and alone the montage at the beginning of it made me cry again.
The score is superb, top-notch! It helps a lot.
But I really don't get all the loose ends in the first part.
Also, is Teresa Wright also by any chance the assistant in 1912? Or did they only meet later? She was great.
I also thought that the manager was from the future as well, his description in her words alluded a lot to that, but apparently from other comments, it isn't so.
I'm now a big fan of this movie and will watch it again soon, probably back to back with Jennie Logan
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mastersslave74
10 years ago
You have me totally confused.
The woman comes to him in college after his play was publicized---which is how she must have found him. In 1912, he told her he was a play write, and where he was from.
EIGHT years later, he happens to see her picture on the wall of the hotel, which is what makes him research her. He fell in love with her picture. When he researches her, he realizes she is the woman who visited him and gave him the watch eight years before.
When he visits the author of her book, he sees she was reading a book on time travel (written by his professor). This gives us insight into the fact that she knew he traveled back in time, and she was researching the concept. All those years, she was still so in love with him that she had the music box of the hotel and the tune he sung to her made.
So I do not understand your statement. WHY would he know her in college before he saw the picture and went back in time? And what would cause you to think she is time traveling? She was at the highlight of her career in 1912 when the eventually met. When he returned to 1980, she was left to live her life like a normal person. Then in the 70s, she found him, knowing he did not know her yet. That is why she says "Come back to me". Then she died that night. She lived a normal life.... no time traveling for her. She just waited her entire life waiting for him. What I do not know is how she possibly knew when he would pop up in the future. I always assumed he dropped the penny that said 1979 and she tried to find him in that time frame.
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TVholic
10 years ago
What I do not know is how she possibly knew when he would pop up in the future. I always assumed he dropped the penny that said 1979 and she tried to find him in that time frame.
She had at least one clue. Richard hummed Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" on the rowboat, 22 years before it was written and performed. She knew it couldn't have been a coincidence. Richard specifically told her it was Rachmaninoff and it was "from the Rhapsody." And certainly Richard's disappearance, whatever it looked like in her eyes, was like nothing seen in the natural world. People don't just disappear into thin air before your eyes.
He didn't drop the penny in 1912. He dropped it in his own room after returning and failing to travel again.
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dollvalley
10 years ago
First of all, let me apologise for all those typos in my post! I was in such a hurry to get all my thoughts down after watching the movie and I didn't even read it back.
It's been two months and I forgot some aspects that now I can't fully understand the posts after mine. However, my question still remains, there doesn't seem to be a real clue as to how this started.
Maybe I have been spoiled by other time-travel movies where the thing that puts things in motion is very clear: Back To The Future has the machine, Jenny Logan is the dress etc.
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Princerd
10 years ago
The method of travel was more metaphysical than scientific for a reason. The author of the novel Bid Time Return said he did not wish to use a mechanical means for time travel; a metal ball is how I think he put it. He thought it would place the story in the realm of Science Fiction rather than romance. I agree.
The professor who Richard spoke to said he would never try time travel again, but explained the process, which he discovered by accident. It was accomplished by shear will power and a hypnotic state that untied you from your present time. It was also tied to a physical place that had a long history. So, this means of time travel, tied to the Grand Hotel, could be viewed much like the dress you mentioned. The 1977 penny had the opposite effect by drawing him back to the present time. I find that as clear and plausible as a Delorean since neither is factual.
Of course the tried and true method to time travel, used by Superman and Star Trek, is achieve a high velocity acceleration by whiplashing around the sun. One direction to travel into the past and the opposite direction to go forward in time.
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jarthurs-46779
9 years ago
He dropped the penny in 1980 when he came back so she never had a chance to see it. She must have followed plays and authors searching for Richard Collier and found him in 1972. Poor girl.
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