MovieChat Forums > Somewhere in Time (1980) Discussion > Too naive?

Too naive?

posted 9 years ago by elliest_5
3 replies | jump to latest

I couldn't be moved by this movie because I found it too naive. Perhaps I'm missing something, or I'd have to consider that when it was made there hadn't been such an abundance of time travel-related romantic films...

Just a few of my issues with this movie:

- He is magically drawn to her picture when he visits the museum room with no explanation and he falls in love/becomes obsessed with her at first sight (ok, I guess that's not entirely implausible, but it somehow wasn't convincing in the particular setting).

- The whole meeting with the professor and getting instructions for time-travel is totally ridiculous. The professor spends so much time with an unknown guy when he just said he's very busy, just because he's been asked a vague question about a topic on which he's written a whole book. Imagine a random stranger approaching Stephen Hawking while he's trying to get from one lecture to another asking him "Professor Hawking, what do you think about black holes?". Well, "go read my effing books" is the likely answer and not "Oh yeh, I'll stop whatever I'm doing and spend a few hours with you explaining my theory, along with some very personal accounts".

[By the way, the whole idea of how he achieves the time-travel is also quite ridiculous, but OK, I'll give the movie a break and suspend my disbelief for this one. It's fantasy not sci-fi.]

- The explanation for her saying "is it you" when she first sees him is rather lame. Also, there's no explanation about why the manager guy seems to "know things before they happen". I thought it would be something about him being aware of the possibility of time-travel/having time-traveled himself, but there's no resolution for this mystery or his character whatsoever.

- They spend ONE afternoon together and somehow this is enough for them to love each other to death.

- Why did he put the coins in his pocket in the first place? Didn't he think they would raise suspicions if he tried to use them?
- Don't we assume that he knows he's from the future while he's in the past? Why did the coin cause the dissociation when he was already and constantly aware of the time travel?

~*~

[–] Yucahaor 9 years ago

The professor is not some celebrity like Stephen Hawking so the comparison there is totally off base. If anything, I'd imagine a professor who isn't some famous celebrity would be flattered.

[–] Quentin36 9 years ago

Wow just wow.

[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

You give us a prime example of how so many people these days are just too cynical to enjoy a movie like this. It was made 37 years ago, after all, and back then people were perhaps more polite, less likely to tell someone to "eff off" when approached with a question, and I guess you missed the coin thing—he got old coins minted before 1912 but accidentally kept one from his time in with them. Why it should have caused him to regress back to his own time is one of many mysteries in this movie. It's adapted from a novel, btw, the author of which, Richard Matheson, had a one-line cameo in the movie.

IMHO, the appeal of this story isn't the plausibility or implausibility of the time travel but it explores the idea of having a soul mate, someone you recognize immediately, or within a few hours anyway. A lovely idea even if one doesn't think it's reality. It's a work of art the way it was filmed, with the locations, costumes, and music all contributing to the experience. I guess with the blunt-force trauma so many movies present us with today, something as gentle and romantic as this one might not appeal to everyone. But it works for those of us who are old enough to remember when it first came to our attention, and it continues to this day. Only a couple of years ago, my husband and I visited the Grand Hotel and had dinner there. I was in many ways transported to an earlier time with the horse-drawn carriages and elegant setting. We sat at the window just one table away from where Christopher Reeve sat having his breakfast at one point during the movie and watched the sunset. It was a thrill for me. I'm sorry you are caught up in all the paradoxes, which we all freely admit to, and can't see the beauty of this film.

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