My questions about “Somewhere in Time”
I still dearly love Somewhere in Time (1980), even with all of its gaping plot holes. I watched it again this past weekend and it remains in my head. So here are a bunch of mostly questions and a few observations. These are almost entirely spoilers, so be careful.
Did Richard (Christopher Reeve) take any dollar bills with him to the past? If he didn’t, how did he pay for his hotel room? And if he did, why didn’t looking at those dollar bills from 1979 cause him to lose his place in 1912 like the 1979 penny did?
Susan French is a terrible choice as the older Elise. She has dark eyes and looks nothing like Jane Seymour, who has lighter eyes.
Elise’s manager (Christopher Plummer) was a huge dick for sending that politely worded note to Richard to get him to duck out of the play, only to have him beaten up and left in the hay (bound and gagged) in the horse stable, to… die? Be pooped on by a horse? What?
Did Richard really drive his convertible all the way from Chicago to Mackinac not knowing where he was going to go, and then he just happened to drive by the Grand Hotel sign, and decided to stay there? I guess the past him was telling him where to go and he didn’t realize it.
How was Elise still at the hotel to hook up with Richard when her theater company was supposed to have left for the next city the night before?
Why did Richard not realize earlier that having a 1970s General Electric cassette recorder would keep him from going into past-hypnosis? And what about the two mid-century modern lamps above the bed? Why couldn’t he get rid of those?
Richard had some serial killer eyes, especially when he was trying to literally put his foot in the door of Elise’s housekeeper/companion in 1979, and when he stubbornly loomed in the hotel door of 1912 Elise. Would not fly today.
How did Elise’s manager “know” that someone like Richard would come into Elise’s life and steal her away? Did he have a warning from the future somehow?
Did Richard buy vintage underwear in 1979 to go with his old looking suit or was he wearing 1979 underwear the whole time?