Once again, sorry to my Instagram followers for being repetitive, but let’s talk for a few minutes about Somewhere in Time. I mentioned on Instagram how surprising it was that I’d never seen this 1980 movie because who’s more beautiful on film than Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve and they are together! And it’s romance. And it has love that transcends time and separation. But mostly, it was surprising because I have listened to the score of the movie for decades and love it.
Oh, everyone said, YOU MUST SEE IT. (Except Puterbaugh, such a film geek, but he hadn’t seen it either.) So I ordered it. It came on Valentine’s Day, and from the moment Tom started the DVD, I wanted to cry. Okay, maybe I did cry. I didn’t even know how things would play out or what would or wouldn’t happen, but it’s that MUSIC.
SORT OF SPOILERS AHEAD (because you won’t see the actual end of the movie and I won’t provide it):
Near the end, when anybody’s heart would be breaking, and I definitely was crying… well, here. Here’s a four minute and something clip. Go ahead. Watch some heartbreak.
Now as I was watching that, there was no way I couldn’t think of another scene from another movie and how many times my friends who’ve been forced to watch it with me complained and carried on about how LONG it was, how torturous to see, oh, she should snap out of it. Let’s view the scene that makes them squirm and carry on.
It’s not that long! Christopher Reeve’s adult Richard Collier is grieving a love of like two days that he thinks is lost forever. Kristen Stewart’s teenaged Bella Swan is grieving a love of what, a year’s duration?, she thinks is lost forever. And though three months may pass in Bella’s scene, it’s just a little over TWO MINUTES on the screen.
If we can cry through four minutes of Richard’s agonizing sense of loss, Bella should get at least two.
I do wonder if Chris Weitz the director of New Moon thought of Christopher Reeve/Richard Collier at the window. It IS a truth internetly acknowledged that author Stephenie Meyer cites Somewhere in Time as one of her influences.
Also, I have imagined with some amusement Superman time traveling to Forks and making Vampire Girl forget Mr. Sparkles.
