Ajtlawyer

We tried watching this the other night and turned it off about 1/2 way through. I understand that most modern movies have vulgarities in the screenplay. Most of the time it's unnecessary. In "Old Dads" it seemed like every alternate word was a vulgarity. Why? Maybe it's funny the first few times, but over and over and over and over. . . It's too much. Filmmakers are capable of making entertaining movies and TV without having to stoop to this constantly.

The vulgarities were so distracting it became hard to even follow what little plot the story seemed to have. Distracting enough that I'm sure plenty of other viewers dropped out of watching this long before it ended.

I knew that this movie had a very devoted, almost cult-like following but in all the years since it was made, I'd never seen it until last night. I like time travel stories and Richard Matheson's work and since he wrote the book and screenplay, I decided I finally should see it.

The upside of the movie is that it has a nice musical score and it's filmed at the Grand Hotel at Michigan's Mackinac Island, although the movie's not actually set on the island, pretending the hotel is along some lake somewhere within driving distance of Chicago.

Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are the leads. I won't bore you with the plot since it's well known. Reeve, a young playwright, has a mysterious encounter with an elderly woman who asks him to come back in time to join her. Over the years he obsesses about the woman and he researches her (she was a famous actress in her day). He uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time from 1979 to 1912, meets her and they quickly fall in love after only a couple of days together.

That's pretty much the movie. The downside for me is that I felt Reeve's performance was very distracting. It was his first movie after he did "Superman" and he physically dominates and looms over just about everyone in the movie. He's an impressive physical specimen. But his acting ability leaves a lot to be desired. I felt he came across rather amateurish, especially when paired with Seymour and the ostensible villain of the story, Christopher Plummer.

The movie is almost quaint by today's standards. Very little profanity, no harsh "f-bombs" and no nudity or explicit love scenes. In that respect, it's a bit refreshing. But in the end, Reeve's distracting performance spoiled the movie for me.