Time After Time is a wonderful film. Yes, the special effects are dated, but there’s a certain charm to the now antiquated, low-fi quality of the entire piece. Malcolm McDowell was tons of fun, as usual, in a role he seemed born to play, and David Warner made for the perfect villain for him to go up against. Written and directed by Nicholas Meyer, the film served as his helming debut, and the final result is a piece that straddles multiple tones, involves science fiction, romance, drama, and thriller elements, with nods to film noir and a perfect sense of period splendor. McDowell stars as H.G. Wells, with the narrative pivoting on the notion that Wells built a time machine, with the intention of using it in an effort to travel to a supposed Utopian paradise in the future. But in a high concept twist, before he’s able to use the time machine for his own devices, an on-the-run Jack the Ripper (Warner) hijacks it so that he can escape, inadvertently traveling to San Francisco circa 1979.
Wells gives chase, and upon arriving in the present day, falls in love with a pretty bank teller named Amy (Mary Steenburgen, so young, so cute). The mismatched pair work feverishly to catch Jack the Ripper while romance blossoms around them. Time After Time has witty dialogue and great performances, and if Meyer hadn’t yet mastered directorial pacing, you can certainly see why he’d land the job on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as he was able to comfortably mix big ideas with solid technical execution, never forgetting about narrative coherence or skimping out on nuanced performances. The film features a terrific and operatic musical score from Miklós Rózsa which kicks in right from the start, and the cinematography by Paul Lohmann (a frequent collaborator with Robert Altman), evoked multiple time periods with ease and casual style. Released in 1979, the film was a moderate box office success, and was met with mostly favorable reviews from critics, but for some reason this film still has a fairly low profile. No Blu-ray is currently available, which seems a shame.
Podcasting Them Softly 