Movie · 1980 · Drama, Fantasy, Romance · 1h 43m · PG · English
Curator score: 3.1/10 (62.6K ratings)
Someday in the past he will find her...
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.1/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.50/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 54%
Metacritic: 29
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Jeannot Szwarc
Production
Universal Pictures, Rastar Productions, Stephen Deutsch Productions
Cast
Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright, Bill Erwin, George Voskovec, Susan French, John Alvin, Eddra Gale, Audrey Bennett, William H. Macy, Laurence Coven, Susan Bugg, Christy Michaels, Ali Marie Matheson, George Wendt, Steve Boomer, Pat Billingsley, Ted Liss, Francis X. Keefe
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A swoony, old-fashioned time-travel romance with a sincere emotional core and a famously earnest lead performance. It’s more dreamy and melodramatic than logically airtight, but that’s part of its charm.
Best for
viewers who like romantic fantasy with a melancholy streak
fans of earnest, sweeping love stories
people who enjoy nostalgic period atmosphere and lush music
audiences open to high-concept premises played straight
Skip if
you need rigorous sci-fi rules
you dislike melodrama or unabashed sentiment
you want fast pacing and modern irony
you’re allergic to romance driving the entire plot
Overview
Somewhere in Time is the kind of movie that asks you to surrender to it, not analyze it. The time-travel logic is pure wish fulfillment, but the film’s real engine is longing: for love, for an idealized past, for a life that feels just out of reach. Christopher Reeve plays the obsession with such sincerity that the movie keeps finding new emotional registers even when the premise is running on dream logic.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the atmosphere. The period detail, the lakefront setting, and the lush score give the film a romantic haze that feels almost hypnotic. Jane Seymour’s presence is crucial too; she gives the story a fragile, unreachable quality that makes the central obsession feel both absurd and strangely moving.
Bottom line
It can be corny, and it absolutely knows how to lean into a tearjerker ending. But if you’re willing to meet it on its own terms, it becomes a deeply committed fantasy about love as destiny. That commitment is what has kept it alive as a cult favorite.
Top Letterboxd reviews
phoebe 💫 (3.5★) · 1750 likes
greatest movie villains:
- hannibal lecter
- darth vader
- the joker
- 1979 penny
russman (3★) · 1203 likes
I wish they came up with a more plausible method for Christopher Reeve to travel back in time. Like flying around the Earth real fast or something.
Tylot Lantern (4★) · 704 likes
I wish someone would look at me the way Christopher Reeve looks at the picture of Jane Seymour.
daisy guzmán (5★) · 683 likes
The penny scene? Terrifying.
sophia <3 (4★) · 663 likes
imagine being so hot a guy learns to time travel for you