Same Time, Next Year

Finally released on DVD this month (April 2004), and plays really well 26 years after its initial release. Unfortunately, no added extras in the DVD re-release (would love follow-up interviews with the principals, but alas...). Sure, it's not a Henry Miller or Harold Pinter play, or teleplay, but there should be room for lighthearted drama in the world. I watched it again after maybe 20 years, and still laughed and cried. Stories about the passage of time, and how people change, are irresistible. There's a reason Same Time, Next Year remains a staple of community theatre. Solid laughs and painful drama if you accept the characters. And now you can add the patina of even more time having passed, from 1951 to 1977, to 2004. Poignant. (Too bad the REAL Sea Shadows Inn -- the Highlands Inn at Carmel, CA -- is $500+/night!).

This film is a great tale of the 50s,60s and 70s. It is another in the films which have made a wonderful transition from Broadway to Hollywood. It is undoubtedly schmaltzy. But Alda and Burstyn make up for any sentimentality with star performances. I have heard it called a chick flick, but here is one guy who believes it is a simply absorbing comedy/romance. Hand me a hankie and let me see it again!

I accidentally stumbled across this movie on Slovenian TV a couple of years ago and could not stop watching. The idea is so simple, yet so original, and Alan Alda is just hilarious, as always. It is interesting how the decades and history reflect on main characters, as well as their own maturing and growing old process. A must see! It really is much more than your typical romantic comedy.

Two people meet at a seaside inn one night in 1951 and are attracted to one another although each is married to someone else. After spending the night together and realizing they've fallen in love, each agrees to meet on the same weekend each year for a rendezvous and each keeps that promise. We see this couple age and grow together from 1951, just after the war, to 1977, just after Vietnam. Seeing each character grow as human beings together and apart is amazing.

Alan Alda plays the happily neurotic accountant beautifully off Ellen Burstyn's naive "stay-at-home" mother who blossoms into a confident, talented businesswoman. Mr. Alda's character, George, doesn't grow as obviously as Miss Burstyn's Doris, but both absorb and survive some of life's best and worst experiences. Some of Miss Burstyn's transformations are a bit jarring - arriving one year to the reunion 8 months pregnant comes to mind, as does her transformation from a suburban housewife to a Berkeley University hippie chick. And Alan Alda's transformation from an uptight Goldwater Republican to the typical 1970s man who ditches the corporate life, grows a mustache, wears his hair longer and also uses every typical 1970s cliché in existence is also a bit jarring but it can be forgiven because Mr. Alda pulls it off so well.

Two characters who make their presence deeply felt even though you never see them are George's wife, Helen, and Doris' husband, Harry. We learn about them and come to know and appreciate them even though they never appear. Only from George and Doris' "good" and "bad" stories about their spouses do you get to know what these 2 absent people are like and you find they are funny and sad, poignant and ordinary and totally human and three-dimensional in their foibles. It's a nice touch to a story that could easily have been one-dimensional.

"Same Time, Next Year" is based on a Broadway play and it makes the transition very smoothly. In fact, what makes the transition so smooth are the historical pictorial vignettes injected between "years." I remember many of the events depicted and you can't help but feel nostalgic. Also, the movie's theme song, played to accompany the vignettes, is wonderful! All in all this is a delightful little movie with some stark drama and hilarious comedy sometimes in the same scene. It's a rare actor who can do comedy and drama so convincingly and Mr. Alda and Miss Burstyn proved beyond the shadow of the doubt they are more than capable of doing this - they are superb!

What a beautiful film this is. Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn are simply marvelous together. This is not just a romantic comedy, it's a tale about finding one's soul-mate and how we sometimes do the wrong thing in life but if we're lucky, we have a chance to redeem ourselves. Ellen Burstyn turns in a subtle, nuanced performance.She can act more with her eyes than most can with their entire bodies.What can we say about Alan Alda? He plays a very funny neurotic character who we get to like instantly. A really lovable guy. If you've ever wanted to see what chemistry between two movie characters is all about, see this film. A definite must-see.