About Time, Somewhere: 'About Time' (2013) and 'Somewhere in Time' (1980) Dissected

I really think you're going to enjoy this Valentine's Day time travel special, so let's jump right in. Welcome back to the Silver Screen Happy Hour. I'm Chris Wiegand.

We've been, we had to put this off for a week and we've been lobbing insults at each other back and forth, kind of Passive aggressive because I liked one movie and apparently my brother liked the other one for some reason.

of them. We're gonna do 1980s Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. And 2013's About Time with Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. What's his name? Domhnall. Say it again. It's Domhnall. It really is Domhnall. I know it's spelled all fucked up, but he even said in an interview, he said it's pronounced like tonal, but with a D. And he's like, he's like, Domhnall, and he's like, the M is in there just to confuse Americans. He literally said that. That's awesome.

So, there you go. So it's Domhnall Gleeson, Bill Nye is in it as well, a couple other people. I like Bill Nye. We'll get to both, I love Bill Nye. And we'll get to both the casts of each film. But anyway, so both deal with I mean, we're gonna go over the log lines and everything, but both deal with love and the relationship to time travel. Yeah. So, I'm, I'm fired up. I actually love the script structures of both, but I had major problems with one of them, and I cannot wait to dive into it.

So which one do you want to do

first?

Cans, and I can't remember the brewery, but you know, craft beers, there's, there's so many of them, but I found the ultimate beer that has a nod to time. The name of this beer is called Softly Spoken Magic Spells. Ooooooh. Now, you probably don't know what that's in reference to, do you?

Go Lions!

But the Lions are in business because, again, at the time of this recording, all we know now is that we're hosting another playoff game, this time against the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Let's go with Somewhere in Time. Okay, let's go, jump into it. Chronologically, it was first. It came out in 1980. Adapted screenplay by Richard Matheson from his own novel which was called Bid Time Return. I think the producers realized what a terrible title that was. So when he, they asked him to adapt his own novel into a movie, they changed the name to Somewhere in Time. And coincidentally future editions of the book that were re released started changing that name to Somewhere in Time.

Because the movie was so popular? The movie was popular and the title bid time return. It just sort of bid. It's fair to will.

right. Here we go Matheson had a long career in early television. He also wrote films such as the early Spielberg thriller, Duel, for those that are fans of early Spielberg work. Later on in his life, he just kind of stuck to big novels, but they were made into huge films that he wasn't the writer of, but of course he was the writer of the novel. What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, and I Am Legend are all films based on his books. Directed by Jean Luc Swarek.

Previously known for directing Jaws 2 in 78. Afterwards, he did Supergirl in 84 and a lot of television. He ended up doing a lot of, and I'm talking double digit episodes, for each of The Practice, Jag, Without a Trace, Smallville, and Grey's Anatomy. Wow. So, big time TV director later in his, in his career. So, Somewhere in Time was released on October 3rd, 1980. It finished its box office run with a Pitiful 9. 7 million domestic. However, it is worth noting it only cost 5 million to make.

So it actually made a profit. Now that is roughly 36 million in today's dollars. Yeah. Of money that it made. But it was only good for 38th place among the top grossing films of 1980. We already know. I'm gonna do a little trivia. What was number one that year? This should be an easy one. 1980? 1980, the number one top grossing movie of the year. E. T. No, it hadn't, AT hadn't come out yet. That was 82. 82. I'll give you a hint. I can't even give you a hint. It's too fucking easy.

Don't say, don't say Raiders of the Lost Ark, that was 81. Alright, I'll tell you, I will give you a hint. It's only one of the greatest sequels of all time.

Theme stated, at the 2 minute, 30 second mark, an old woman approaches Richard and says, Come back to me. Now this is a little early for a theme. But they, we kind of get things rolling pretty quickly in this, in this film. This is gonna be the running theme throughout the rest of the film. Will he or won't he be able to come back to her? Now, I, I'm gonna take you to the second act. And we're going to do what I lovingly call the emotional shifts. The positive and negative. Yeah. You know?

Something that leads you. Remember we talked about this with the Thelma and Louise show. Episode, right? The every other scene. She's either Alpha Thelma and then she's Baby Thelma. Right, right. Here, it's almost every other scene. He's going towards his spiritual goal, or he's being pulled away from it. And it's, you'll see the structure is, is actually perfectly written the way it is. So when you said this screenplay is a joke or something, I almost threw my phone, but we'll get to that.

Alright, so anyway. It's too, it's silly. I'm gonna hold my It's a fantasy. Okay, here we go. Okay, that was the theme stated. Okay, B story. Eight years later, we run into Arthur. Arthur, at this point, is an old man. Arthur serves as the helper character, both bookending his trip back in time before he goes and when he comes back. He makes an appearance in 1912, but only as a child.

But, he does serve as the B story because he gives Richard the information he'll need to reach his spiritual goal. Including the info on the mysterious portrait, which starts the whole damn movie to begin with. Right. That he sees in the Hall of History in the Grand Hotel. And citing incidents, 17 minutes in, Richard is investigating the picture of the woman, and he discovers the picture of the old woman. And he recognizes the old woman.

He knows now that the old lady that came up to him at the beginning and said, come back to me is in fact, this actress name Elise McKenna, who was in the photo in the hall of history. Good name, Elise. Yes. Very good name. Okay. Debate begins. So he gets the idea of self hypnosis time travel from a professor. And he starts the preparation, right? First he wants to know if it can be done. This is all in the debate, because he doesn't know yet if he's going to be able to do it.

So, he gets the idea, he gets some ideas, he, he The professor says that he believes that it can be done. So on and so forth. Catalyst. When he sees the register book in the attic. Now, keep in mind, he attempts and fails. He tries it and he fails and he, and he kind of is thinking, oh, this is bs. This isn't gonna work. And then, and then like this is all kind of conserve as like sort of a debate, but running into the catalyst here, uh, he realizes he got a tape recorder running. Mm-Hmm.

a tape recorder is current, present day. So he is gotta get rid of that.

That gives him all the rest that he needs, right? He's like, I'm in now. I know it. I was there. So it does, it has to work. It had to have worked. So now that's his catalyst because that's what catapults him into the break into two. Which is, he is now in 1912. And 1912, of course, is the mirror flip of Act One. So that's how you know you're now in Act Two, is because he wakes up in the Grand Hotel in his fucking 1912. And he's like, holy shit, I'm here.

He attempts to Now here's where we're gonna do our positive negatives, okay? He's gonna try to track down Elise, he meets young Arthur and now we're going to pinpoint the positive and negatives that lead to his spiritual goal. And they're almost every other scene. It's insane. So he sees her by the lake Oh, by the way, this has a similar problem. This is the only problem with the script. What other film did we just talk about that does this?

When you spend so much time, oh, it was it was Fat Man and the Christmas Special. When you spend so much time on the setup. Yeah. You end up getting to your midpoint scene relatively quickly, right? There's not a lot of meat there in the fun and games section. That happens here. There's only a few scenes. There's a really long scene where he sees her at the lake.

But anyway, that's, alright, so that's the uh, So when he first gets there, he's fumbling around the playhouse trying to find her and he can't find her and nobody wants to help him out, right? Right. Negative. Sees her by the lake and they speak for the first time. Positive. Intro to manager, WFWF Robinson, played by Christopher Plummer, who gets in the way and you know, says uh, he doesn't want him, you know, he's trying to get him away, right?

He's involving himself to get in the middle of the interaction that's negative.

You know, and he's, and she then tells the story, and I'm like, Oh, well if you would have said that earlier, I wouldn't have yelled at the TV. I can't remember what she told him. She does explain it. She just says that when she first got hooked up with W. F. Robinson, and she first started to get famous, he said that he had this prophecy, like, almost like Anakin Skywalker like prophecy, that someone would come along and take her away and ruin her career.

Oh. And, and that she would fall in love with this person and go with them, and her career would be ruined. Right, so they already had this sort of thing in there, right? I thought it would have been again. We're getting ahead of ourselves I thought it would have been cool if it had been revealed that maybe he had gone back Before, earlier to where W. F. Robinson had already met him. But then that wouldn't make sense, and you know, a lot of cloudy there.

But okay, so let's just stick with what we've got. Midpoint scene. He gets his first dance with Elise, and she reveals that she knows something about him, but can't quite put her finger on it. This is positive, and this is, this is a positive element. And he has achieved his tangible goal. Not only has he met her, but now they're talking. Remember, when they first meet, he doesn't have much of a conversation with her. Right? Because she's kind of stuck on stupid, and he's stuck on stupid.

They're just sort of staring at each other awkwardly for like 30 seconds. And then the manager comes along and he's like, Oh, what's going on here? Get out of here, Superman. And you know, it's like, so, you know, it's so weird at the beginning. So this is actually his tangible goal that he has achieved, because he gets to dance with her. And they're actually having a conversation. Alright, false, why is it a false victory? Because this leads to W. F. Robinson's jealousy and sabotage. Negative.

Bad guys closing in. Persistence in the hallway. He finally lands his first date. Positive. While having breakfast, W. F. Robinson enters, this is the next scene by the way, and tries to get, tries to get tough with him. Negative. They go out on their first date. A montage of them sort of falling for each other, culminating in an end of the date kiss. Positive. W. F. Robinson interrupts again. Negative. This is all, like, right after each other.

Play. Elise goes off script and pours her heart out to Richard, who's standing in the crowd. Positive. W. F. Robinson wants to meet and ends his meeting with him with a savage beatdown. Negative. Dressing room, Elise confesses her love for Richard. Positive. All is lost, Richard wakes up in the barn and finds that the company, the acting company, has left. Elise is gone, and he has no means to find her. Negative, and all is lost.

Dark night of the soul, depressed and sitting outside, he can't begin to contemplate what he's possibly going to do next. Break into three, Elise arrives in the background and yells to Richard, Richard! And they're reunited. Positive. Break into three, five point finale, here we go. Gathering the team. This is code for sex. Okay? Gathering the team. What I mean by that is gathering the billions of sperm because Richard and Elyse finally bone. Okay, execution of the plan.

Richard and Elyse now are snacking the next morning. You presume they've been up all night boning because they're still like, half dressed, right? Richard and Elyse, while snacking, are discussing their plans for the future together. Right? Hightower Surprise. He see Now wait, before we get to the Hightower Surprise. The prophecy was almost was Wasn't true until this moment, right? She did meet a guy.

Christopher Reeve even says in the meeting with with Robinson, She's gonna continue to act, I'm not gonna keep her from her career. We're just gonna be together, that's all. And while they're sitting there snacking, she even says, Oh, I'm gonna keep acting, but we'll be together. So, the prophecy of the one that would come along and take her away from this business hadn't happened yet until Until The Hightower Surprise. Right.

He sees the coin in his pocket that says 1979, and it catapults him back to the future. I had to put that in there. Back to the future. Dig down deep. He wakes up in 1980, and he can't get back. He realizes he's lost her forever. Execution of the new plan, he doesn't eat. He doesn't eat, he doesn't do anything for days, and he seemingly dies of a broken heart. Climax, A and B stories collide as Arthur enters the room, calls for paramedics, but it's too late, they can't save him.

Which leads to the resolution and closing image, and Richard achieves his spiritual goal by being reunited with Elyse in heaven for all eternity. Okay? Now We were laughing so hard at that point. Now, you're such an ass. You know, this is the part that mom cries at every time. It's

Yeah. He did not know that that was his spiritual goal. That's the key thing. If you were to take Richard at the end of the movie and take him at the beginning of the movie. He's a young, hot playwright in the beginning of the movie. He'd be like, there's no way I'm going to kill myself for some old bitch who just came up to me and gave me a pocket watch. No fucking way.

But he's got to learn the journey and realize that that's his spiritual goal was to spend eternity with Elise because there were 80 years apart or no, what was that? 69, 68 years apart. There's 68 years apart. Yeah. So for the only way for them to be together, both, you know, young and Good looking is to be in heaven. Yeah. So they achieve their spiritual goal. He's with the woman he loves. Okay. Now, before I continue on, on my notes. Yes. Continue on with your interactions.

First of all, is this the first time you've seen the movie?

When he was preparing everything, he's looking at the coins that are dated 1912, and he's like, Okay, okay. And then he sees some 1979 ones, and he's like, Oh, oh, that was, oh, that could have been a problem. And he takes them and puts them away. Like, you obviously missed one, jerk hole. Like, you missed one. And of course, that's the one you pull out. Right after you just had the boning of your life. Oh my god Anyway, all right.

So moving on to plot holes And there's gonna be a lot of these for both of these movies But anyway, actually there is there's only really one. There's a lot in the next movie. There's a one here That is hard to explain but I was gonna say I actually thought this is you just call it two dimensional It's it's so true how How simple this movie is compared to how complex the next movie is. Right. Right?

There's so many more meticulous intricacies in the next movie that it makes rule breaking inevitable. Oh yeah. But in this movie, it's pretty straightforward. It's very, like you said, two dimensional, so it doesn't leave a lot of room for rule breaking. There is just only one, not really a rule break, but sort of a plot hole. And that is how the fuck does he move around? How is his body moving? So I'll

give you an example. Oh, Like I said, when he first hypnotizes himself, right, he goes back in time. He wakes up in the room that he's in.

One does his, did his body disappear when he went into hypnosis and it reappeared in that room. When he came back, which is unrealistic. Or, all the time he's in 1912, like walking around and riding horse carriages and shit, is his body in real life doing that too? And people are just like watching him walk by, like, Hey, that dude's fucking out of it, dude. Look at him, he's like hypnotized. Look, he's floating, he's not even on a carriage, but it looks like he's on a carriage.

Right, like, and his, his mouth is moving, he's like not even talking to us, like Like, somebody would have stopped him or woke him up, right? Like, hey, buddy, you alright? Like, so obviously that's not happening either. So we know his body didn't disappear, and we know he wasn't just walking aimlessly around 1980 while this movie's going on. So how the fuck, how the fuck did his body move from one room to the other, right? So that's, that's the biggest plot hole.

It would have been so much easier if they just said, hey, when he hypnotized himself, he went to sleep in that room and he wakes up in that room. Regardless of where he was in 1912. It's kinda like Tim in the next movie, he goes and comes back in that closet. It doesn't matter what he does in the meantime. He's in the same closet. So, they could have done the same thing here, just he wakes up in his bed. You know what I mean?

They try to get too, it's almost like they try to get too creative, like, But if he fell asleep in that room, then he wakes up in that room. But it's like, how did his body get there? Dumbass. Like, there's no, you know what I mean? So that's, that's the only thing that I, to me, I think is a plot hole. Okay. So,

I just pulled some up some random ones Yeah Richard Matheson who wrote the book and the screenplay once said somewhere in time is the story of a love which transcends time What dreams may come is the story of a love which transcends death. I feel that they represent the best writing I've done in the novel form.

It's very similar to where one of them died. He has to wait for her in Titanic. Right, because they, they were the same age. They lived in the same time. This movie, they're 68 years apart in time. Right. So he could die young. But die 68 years later. Actually Fuck, this is starting to hurt my head. He actually only died 8 years after her. Yeah. She died the night of the play. Right, right. Right, okay. Alright, so we're there. We're there, we'll find it. We'll find it. We'll find it.

We'll have to cut all that out. Alright. So while they were shooting the film on location, this is kind of a funny story, a local movie house, on Mackinac Island, decided to play Superman. Which was in theaters at the time. They decided to play Superman which was a huge hit. Of course, Christopher Reeve was in town shooting the movie. All the people from the set, the actors, actresses, crew, they all went to go watch Superman. No. Halfway through the movie, the sound goes out.

Christopher Reeve stands up and starts saying the lines to everybody's parts as the movie's going on. That's hilarious. Because he knew all the lines. He knew all the lines.

This is another interesting one, since of what we just went through in the fall when we did our Hoffa show. Poor box office is partially because the actors were on strike at the time, and they were not able to promote the movie. Hmm. It did receive an, it did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Costumes. Did not win, but it did get an Oscar nomination.

Alright, are we gonna close the book on Somewhere in Time?

on. I think I, I found about time we were, we were looking for something to watch something to stream and we were watching trailers and watch that one. And I think Jessie saw it before and she's like, Oh, I think you'll like this. So, so we watched it together the first time I saw it and I loved it. I thought it was a great. I thought it was a great story. And it was actually, I think we're gonna have to talk about some spoilers about how it ends.

So if you haven't seen it about time, you need to go. I spent ten years. Yeah, go see the movie. It's good. You'll enjoy it.

And, for me, I know there's some, I know there's some plot holes, not plot holes, but what do you call them, continuity errors or something when it comes to

Oh, you went tall. I went tall too for my second one.

Alright, about time. 2013 original screenplay written and directed by Richard Curtis. Best known previously for writing some UK gems such as Black Adder, the Black Adder series. But really became mainstream with his best picture nominated for Weddings and a Funeral in 1994, which also earned him his only best screenplay nomination. He would go on to write popular films such as Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, and Love Actually, which he also directed. I'm a big fan of this guy, okay?

I, I love all those Yeah, I love

I have a little trivia on that later too. Of the group, Love Actually is my favorite. Love Actually might be my, is my favorite of the Richard Curtis movies. And the reason why I don't say that ending is better than Notting Hill, because there's several stories going on, so there's several endings. For instance, the Colin Firth ending is great, but The Alan Rickman ending is not so great. You know so But Notting Hill, it's one story. So like, that's like, the sledgehammer ending is just great.

Okay, we're getting off track. Okay, About Time was released November 8th, 2013. It finished its box office run with 87 million worldwide. However, only 15 of that was domestic. But, it's a British movie. Yeah, so it's big in overseas, it was not that big here. It was good for number 81 on the worldwide list. By contrast, the number one worldwide film of 2013 was Frozen, which made 1. 2 billion, with a B, billion dollars.

Yeah. About Time's budget was only 12 million though, so it turned a profit. Sure. That was a pretty nice profit. Yeah, oh yeah, log me.

At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

His father says, and I quote, You have to use it for things that you really think will make your life the way you want it to be. End quote. This will be Tim's running theme. Will he or won't he? Will he use it for bettering his life long term? Or will he use it selfishly for instant gratification? Sorry, I just threw that in there with my little, I, I put a little stank on that there, on there. or will he learn, or here's the best part, or will he learn not to use it at all?

Mm. And just let life happen. Right. Okay. Are you starting to get an idea of where I'm going with his spiritual

goal? Yeah. All right. Yep. More set up. He tests it out on the summer of Charlotte. Played by Margot Robey in an early movie for her. Only to find out that changing one thing might not be enough when dealing with women. Right? His last night plan backfires. He learns a valuable lesson there. He decides to relocate to London where he meets his roommate Harry, played by Tom Hollander, who I believe steals the show of this movie. Harry is my favorite. My favorite character of this whole movie.

The fucking roommate is the best.

Yeah, for some reason I was thinking Rory, he's his co worker. Oh yeah, Rory's his co worker. Yeah, he was funny too, but you're right, Harry was awesome. Yeah, Harry, to me, is the best. Rory had some funny moments too. But Harry in fact, those two had one really funny scene together. I was gonna save it for later, but I'll just tell you now. One of my favorite moments is when the baby shower. And they show Rory with this HUGE ass stuffed animal. And they're like, wow, that's a nice animal!

And he's like, oh, thank you! I was told you should never bring a toy to a baby shower that small. And then the camera cuts to Tom Hollander, and he's holding this little stuffed animal, and he's all, Oh, shut the fuck up. That is so great. Tom Hollander, Harry's part in that whole movie is just funny.

When he goes off on the aunt, because all she wanted was a signature, and he thought she was just some fan, and he's going off on her, and then Tim walks up and he's like, Oh, have you met my aunt? And he's like, Oh, fuck off. Like, like, like the bad luck only comes to Harry. Yeah. And so, and by the way, nobody in this film or perhaps any film in film history wears disappointment on their face better than Tom Hollander as Harry in this movie. It's so palpable every time.

Just the way he stares with that look, like, doesn't he have to say anything? God. He was the best part of the, if I watch this movie again, it's because of him. Yeah. All right. I already had to watch it several times for this show. Alright, so Okay, so his friend Jay takes him to the dark restaurant where he meets Mary in the dark and they hit it off. 21 minutes in.

Realizing, so debate begins, realizing his roommate Harry's night as a play director fails miserably, he has to decide whether or not to intervene or to keep his wonderful night with Mary. Sorry The mic ultra had a point the mic ultra had a point it wanted to make it was trying to come out I was holding it in sorry Okay Break into two Tim decides to risk it all and help Harry, but now he's in a new world Where the girl he hit it off with doesn't know who he is.

So now we're in the upside down version of one, of act one, where he was sort of like, met the girl, you know? Right, right. And everything was kind of going Now he's in a mirror flip, but the girl doesn't know who he is anymore, because he fucking changed things. Right. Fun and games! The new Mary, the one that doesn't know who Tim is, is the B Story. This is interesting. A clever play on this. She wasn't the B Story when he first met her, but she's the B Story now.

Because now she's the person that he eventually marries, right? So, a character that serves as the love interest, but also the person that will help Tim reach his spiritual goal. Trailer scenes emerge, as we are now in Act 2, he he can now manipulate how he meets Mary, how she takes interest in him, and even redoes a sexual encounter until it serves his needs. Yes, that sounded as stankful as I meant it to sound.

Suddenly, even Charlotte wants in his pants, and in a save the cat sort of way, we are to believe that he doesn't smash Charlotte. Even though he could redo it, if he wanted to. If this were real There is literally no way he doesn't nail Charlotte because he can always just go back Right, but again in sort of and I think Richard Curtis knew this that if you really want the audience To be on Tim's side, right?

He can't be a dog This was his save the cat moment, but it's 100 percent bullshit, he nails Margot Robey, you know he would, we all would! I mean, she's Barbie, man. Dude, and if you had the chance to go back in time and just say it didn't happen, but you still get to keep the memory, who the fuck Wouldn't do that. So now I'm being patronized and now you're gonna start to hear my anger kick up because this is where It's gonna go for the rest of this fucking show.

Yes, it's a false victory because now we know that more shits can eventually hit the fan, right? Okay. Because his life isn't perfect now. He thinks it is because he used his powers to get the girl, and that was his tangible goal, and the sun sets slowly in the west. Okay, bad guys closing in. Second half of act two is littered with life issues that Tim sometimes uses his powers to change.

It is worth noting at this point that the times he could have changed things and didn't were mostly out of Mary's desires. He doesn't change the meeting with the parents, because it's Mary that untimely announces that they're living together, not Tim. He doesn't change the wedding, even though there was a monsoon during the wedding ceremony. Because Mary says, I wouldn't change this for the world, I loved it that way. He even asks her, would you do it differently if you could?

Because he's like saying, I can go in the closet, we can do this all over again! And she says, no, I loved it this way. So, he doesn't change it. But he does use his powers to change things like his best man. Right? Yeah, I like that sequence. That was good. The best man scene. Yeah. Yeah. Of course that brings us to, we're in Bad Guys Closing In now, second half of Act 2. Big Kit Kat's Big Redo. So Lydia Wilson plays his sister Kat they call her Kit Kat. She of course I like her character.

She has a very troubled life with a very problematic, troublesome boyfriend. He goes back and saves her from the accident. And then from Jimmy, which, of course, when he gets back, he finds out his kids are changed, right? Mm hmm, mm hmm. By the way, I will say that Mary, as the voice of reason, pushing Tim closer as the B story to his spiritual goal, actually says the quote, If it's gonna be fixed, she probably needs to do it herself. Right. End quote. That was at the 1 hour 21 minute mark.

A lesson Tim seems to struggle with. All is lost. Tim and Mary get the call that Dad is dying. By the way, we've skipped over a section. I'm saving it for the plot hole angry rant section. But when he finds out his daughter is now a son, he has to go back and fix that. But we'll save that. Get to that in a minute. All is lost. Tim and Mary get the call that dad is dying. This is an interesting scene though because he wants to go back and change.

What happened was while she was trying on dresses for her big night and Tim is trying to tell her, yes, that one's fine, that one's fine too, whatever. He's doing the husband thing, right? Where it's like just pick a dress and let's go. Right. He's not watching Posey, the daughter, who is literally destroying The wife's business papers for that night. Crayons on him, tearing him up like a dog almost, right? They go into the room, they see the disaster. He's like, I'll be right back.

He's just gonna go to the closet and fix it. She won't let him leave. She's like, no, you're not going anywhere. He's like, Seriously, if you just give me one second, I can fix all this and she's like, no, you're not leaving. You're going to help me. And he's like, I really, I just need to walk out of the room for a minute. So it is a funny scene the way it's written, but ends badly though, because the all is lost. They get the phone call in that moment. Yeah. They find out that dad is dying.

Does he even have a name? I think they just call him Dad throughout the movie. I think he's credited as Dad, isn't he?

Dad tells him how to live life and how to be happy. Five point finale. Here we go. Gathering the team. Dad lays out the plan. Live each day twice. Once, like everyone else, and the second time to enjoy it and savor the moments of life. Execution of the plan. Tim does this. He's living out the days as his father said, but some days he's not repeating. He's starting to drift closer to his spiritual goal. High tower surprise. Mary wants another baby.

And per the rules, Tim realizes that, as he says in the movie, quote, saying yes to the future meant saying goodbye to dad. Because once the kid is born, he can't go back again and see his dad. Because of the rule that was set up that changed his daughter Posy into a boy in the first place.

You can't go back prior to your kid being born, because there's a billion sperm in you, and for the chance of that one to hit the same way again is impossible, and your kid's all fucked up and they're gonna look different. Alright, dig down deep. Doesn't take Tim long. He immediately gives it no more thought and says, Let's do it. Okay? Execution of the new plan.

Tim is ready to give it all up, But days before the birth of the child He goes back to have one more moment with his dad at the beach, and yet somehow not screwing anything up. Climax, Tim reaches his spiritual goal of realizing not to use the time travel at all. Live life to the fullest and let it just happen, mistakes and all. He even says in a quote in the very end of the film, I almost never use it anymore. Yeah, he says. Yep, right? Closing image, Tim on his cell phone with Mary.

They're happy with their extraordinary life. Yep. Alright, let me grab my beer for this.

Here, we're gonna tear the fuck out of this painting we just made.

Tim's spiritual goal is to live every day as it happens without having to use his powers. He achieves that at the end. Remember that often in scripts, if you follow the proper structure, the lead fights that spiritual goal the whole film. Till they learn the lesson. This is written Perfectly like that. He has to learn the lesson and he fights against it with these wrong way goals. I can fix this, I can fix that. It reminded me a lot of that movie Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher.

Yeah. Where he keeps trying, oh fuck man, I went and fixed that. Now something else is screwed up, I gotta try to fix that. And now I gotta fix that. And it's all these wrong way goals, right? All right, plot holes and gripes. Obviously, there are rules with a movie like this, and breaking of these rules are generally the problem and the creator of the plot holes. The most egregious! Plot problem, right off the bat, is that you can only travel back in time. You cannot go into the future.

However, every time they go back, THEY COME INTO THE FUTURE! They break that rule. Whenever him or his father go back in time, they come forward in time. And you, and, wait, wait, wait, I know you're dying to say, you're dying to jump in right now. The argument is, well, you can go back to where you were, but, If you go back, there is nowhere you were. The future does not exist anymore. Yeah, details. You can say what I said in Somewhere in Time. It's a movie. It's a movie.

Okay, so I'll Alright, alright, listen, listen. I'll forgive that. I'll forgive that. That one's okay. Worse, at one point, So, now, now we're starting to get into the real shit. So, at one point, he takes his sister back with him. Only men can go back in their family. Yet, he takes the sister simply by holding her hands. It's a movie. It's a movie. Nowhere is that said that that can happen. But he fucking does it. He figures out he can. Okay, what happened to the men in the family only stuff?

Here's worse, when they come back, again these start to pile on top of each other. When they come back, all her new memories, including hooking up with Jay, are flooded into her head. But not Tim's. Why not? Didn't he relive that whole life too? And yet he's like, Jay? She's like, yeah, I'm with Jay now. And he's like, Jay? Fucker, if she relived it all, you would have too.

Terrified, he gets the info from his dad that going back before the child is born, before the birth of the child, would mess things up because there's different sperm and you got a billion sperm and well, you can't do everything, can't be perfect the same way. Can't be perfect the same way twice. He goes back to fix it. How can he fix it? How is it gonna be Posey by fixing it? If he goes back and lets Cat hook up with Jimmy, he has still altered his sperm.

If he goes back to when he has the idea to take Cat back, that moment in time is already lost and gone forever. It's already been redone. So how does he fix it? We don't know! He just goes back, and when he comes forward, Posey's a girl again! It's a movie. What the fuck? It's a movie. So here's what I thought in that scene. I'm like, hey, Bill Nye! This would have been very valuable information when your son started having children, you know, time to have a talk.

Yeah, and what does Bill Nye say? What does Dad say? Oh, I forgot to tell you. What? What? That's like a chick having sex with a dude and she's got AIDS and she's like, oh, yeah, I forgot to tell

There are a billion sperm running free every time you blow your load. Even if you try to match everything perfectly, it's gonna be different sperm. And thus, a different child. Just going back to see his dad again, his kids would be different. Ultra different forever. Now to the part where I get angry. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Here's my hot take. I told you, I loved every character in this film but one. Tim, is an unlikable person. Really? Absolutely. I even wrote here, this is my hot take.

I can take all the plotholes you got. As you said, it's a movie. What is unforgivable, to me, is what a controlling asshole he is. And a pretty dumb for a lawyer if you ask me. Okay? Because he's shocked to see that Mary's number is missing from his phone when he changes Harry's play at the beginning. What? Mary's number's not in here? Why wouldn't it be? Because you fucking erased it! It doesn't happen now, you changed that reality. And then when he realizes that, Oh, that's right.

We didn't meet at the dark restaurant. Well now I have to stalk her, almost literally, And come up with bullshit that I don't even believe in, but I know that she does. So I say it to manipulate her and control her into liking me. Then he's shocked when he taps her on the shoulder and she has no idea who he is. He's like, Hey!

And he manipulates her every chance he gets. From the restaurant scene on she gets there eventually because Tim can redo whatever he wants. To her, he's the perfect man who's never made a mistake.

Because now you can't go back in time whenever you want and spend time with him? Fuck you! That's the rest of the world. We all have to deal with that. I was not sucked in by that as any sort of emotional moment. In fact, I remember yelling at the TV, Grow the fuck up, asshole! That's what we all have to do. We all have to say goodbye to our dad. Not you, apparently. You're fucking special.

Yeah, I didn't even think about that. She falls for it! I'm gonna be drunk by the end of this. And women love that movie. And I'm sure women love About Time. I mean, again, I even mentioned Tim wields his power the way Bill Murray does in Groundhog Day. But here's the difference. Bill Murray realizes that none of that shit matters. Yeah.

Alright and I also mentioned again, I'm also not buying that he didn't nail Charlotte when he had the chance. Knowing he has the power to go back and take it back, he would have smashed her ten times before going back and changing it all. But, whatever. I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it. Eh, eh, yeah, okay, and then at the end I go off on my whole thing about that he has to say goodbye to his dad. Something we all have to do as people. Tim, piss me off!

And obviously and again the underlying the underlying theme the underlying nature I guess I should say not the theme but the underlying nature that he is almost god like in the fact that he can do no wrong. He can fix any mistake. He can fix any problem. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything. And like I said, you've had arguments with your wife. I've had arguments with my wife. Everybody has arguments with their wife. He can always go back and make it so that argument never happened.

In her eyes, he is perfect. That's not reality. Yeah. And that's a marriage based on deceit. And we never fix it. They're still together at the end. Oh, because they love each other. How do we know Mary really loves him? She loves an idea that's been manipulated in her head, like fucking Leo in that movie Inception.

Alright, things I liked. I already talked about Tom Hollander as the roommate. He does steal the show. He is my favorite character. The other things I liked is the soundtrack is fantastic. Yeah, yeah. God, it's such a great soundtrack. Not just the movie soundtrack.

note. Domhnall Gleason, I don't know if you know this. He is the son of Brendan Gleason. You know who Brendan Gleason is, right? Yeah. You do. He's the big redhead, huge dude in Braveheart gangs in New York. Oh really? Wow. Troy? Troy, he's in, in Troy in Bruge. Yeah, so yeah, that's his son. Of course. Another ginger. They look a lot alike.

So, again, while you're looking that up, let me just tell the audience, listener again, for script structure, it's written very well. It's directed very well. It's acted very well. It's got a great sort of screenplay in which you can learn from if you're a writer. Reaching your spiritual goal at the end.

Somewhere in time as well, as we dictated in Somewhere in Time, the way the whole second act is that positive and negative emotional shifts that we talked about, those are important writing lessons. That's how you keep your script from being boring. If you're like, man, I know how I want it to start, and I know how I want it to end, but fuck, I got this whole middle part I'm having trouble with. Emotional chefs, man. Positive, negative. Positive, negative. Watch Thelma and Louise. Same thing.

One scene, they're one thing, driving them towards the spiritual goal. The next scene, it's pulling them back. And then they go forward, and then they get pulled back. And then they go forward, and then they get pulled back. You keep doing that through your whole second act, you're going to create tension. And you're going to create way more interest in your story development. And your character is slowly but surely reaching their spiritual goal.

Because the lessons going forward are stronger every time. So, both of these films had great script structure.

My issue with About Time is solely with that, sort of that cloud that just hung over it where I just felt that Tim manipulated everything that was worthwhile in his life. And I got emotionally angry at the end when it came to the dad thing. I'm like, you know, our dad is still alive, thank God. He's not going to be forever. And, and that I have to feel emotionally sad for Tim because he has to make a decision?

So did you find the song? Hold on. I'm going to pull up the soundtrack. The song I pulled up was actually the the the instrumental song. That's beautiful and it's just called About Time. The score, The score for the movie. Yeah. Who wrote this? By various artists. Okay. Thanks. Oh, wow. So

It, it's, overall, it's a, it's a very well made film. But I think that there was, and I, and for a while I thought I was alone. So I like went on Reddit, and I looked up old shit, like am I the only one with these problems? And there were other people popping up with like, Oh, this is bullshit! It's changing her, it's manipulating her the whole time or whatever. And I'm like, so I'm not the only one that's seeing that.

Because he was no longer fucking with her. And then at the end of the movie, they see each other in New York City, just sort of passing on the sidewalk, and he smiles, like, and she kind of looks at him, kind of like, Do I know you? I feel like I know you. But he's smiling because he knows like, Now maybe we can start over. Maybe we can do it for real. And let life just happen this way. Like he changed, he fixed everything by redoing everything. Now that's the theatrical ending.

I was told that there's a Or no, maybe that was the, the change, the alternate ending. There was an original ending, I think, where he goes all the way back to when he's a child in the womb, and he kills himself. Oh, yeah. He, he wraps the umbilical cord around his head and dies. A little dramatic, audiences hated it, so they changed it, the alternate ending, is that he just changes his relationship with the girl, and hopes to maybe do it right when they meet later as adults.

He's not willing to give up any of that. Even though, and, and, actually, no, I'm not even gonna say that. He doesn't realize he's a manipulator. He thinks hey, man This is just my gift, and I'm in a great marriage with great kids He's not once looked in the mirror and said oh, this shit's deceitful. I fucking none of this is real Yeah, so he doesn't even take the responsibility or the accountability I guess what he's doing is wrong.

So I can understand the difficulty of Of trying to do that, but at the very least, if they could have written some way where he came clean with his wife, you know, and, like, vowed to not do it again or something, I don't know, I don't know, it's, it's, but that's not as clean, but that's not as clean an ending as the butterfly effect.

It's the one where she loses her baby in, in childbirth. It's an at home childbirth. Is it about her? Is that what it's called? Something like that? Oh my god! I don't know the movie you're talking about. It, it, it's Shia LaBeouf plays her husband. And, and they wanna have this natural at home birth so they get one of those, What was her friend's name? In the movie I can't remember her friend's name, her the actress was Vanessa Kirby.

And, God, people are listening right now and they're screaming at their fucking phone. Okay, I'll tell you right now. I'll tell you right now. I got it. Pieces of a something? Pieces of me? Is that what it is? Pieces of a woman? Pieces of a woman, that's it. Okay, so Vanessa Kirby, yes. She was nominated for Best Actress for Pieces of a Woman. Huh. 2020. That's an intense film, dude. Check that out. The whole movie's not intense. The first Act is intense. I'm telling you right now, look at me.

Yeah. Look at me. Look at me. Give me your full and undivided. Okay, gotcha. It's a hard scene to watch. Okay. The baby, delivering and dying at birth. Oh yeah, that would be rough. Is a hard, hard scene to watch. But the whole rest of the movie is about how they're, like, holding this what do they call the woman that comes to your house to help you give birth to the kid? Midwife. The midwife. Yeah. They, how they try to sue her and take her to court for killing the kid. Oh, wow.

Because of her negligence. But it's really about her marriage with Shia LaBeouf's character is falling apart and, you know, I mean, it's an intense movie. And she was nominated for Best Actress. This, I didn't know she was in this movie. Hmm. About Time. So when I started watching About Time, I'm like, hey, that's the Chick from fuckin whatever, Pieces of Me, whatever it is. Changes of a Woman. I already forgot the title again. Fuck, man. Sorry. It's these beers. Yeah, it's, you know.

Pieces of a Woman. It's not an easy title, so just roll off your tongue. Pieces of a Woman, yes. You can watch it, but it's intense. And particularly the first act. So I told you I was gonna give you another piece of trivia about four weddings and a funeral. Let me tell you one of, ugh. It is considered by some, including myself, that 1994 was the greatest collection of Best Picture nominees at the Oscars. Okay? Okay. You wanna hear the four nom the five nominees? Yeah, yeah.

I'll give you the four losers first, okay? Four weddings and a funeral. Which, again, was Richard Curtis high point. I think it's Love Actually. Other people think it's Notting Hill. But really, Four Rings and a Funeral was one of his best movies, if not his best film. Best picture, nominee. Quiz Show, nominated. Robert Redford's film about the 1950s game show scandal. Great film. If you haven't seen Quiz Show, we suggest you do. I haven't seen that one. Oh my god, it's fantastic!

Scorsese actually appears in the film as an actor, it's great. You should see that, that was, that's really good. That was nominated for Best Picture. And now we get into the three big ones. The Shawshank Redemption. Okay. Up for Best Picture. Pulp Fiction. Offer Best Picture. Those four all lost to Forrest Gump. Well, yeah. And that's considered though, the five, like that's one of the five best collections. Normally when the Oscars come around, nowadays you can get up to ten nominees. Right.

So you have, I don't want to say duds, but you have a few more in there that people know have no shot. But back in the day, prior to 2009, Like 2008 was the last year there was only 5 nominees. By the way, another trivia, do you know why they changed it? Do you know why after 2008, I forgot why. They changed it to where now you can have up to 10 nominees? Cause the Dark Knight got snubbed and did not get nominated. And Heath Ledger's final role did not get a Best Picture nomination.

And everybody was aghast! They're like, how can this movie be left out? Right. So they change it. I mean, some people argue that's not why they changed it. That's why they changed it. That's why they changed it. Now you can have up to ten. And now movies like The Dark Knight would get nominated, right? Right. Like, movies that you would never think would get nominated before now can get nominated. But back in the day when there was only five, there's usually one or two. Like The Front Runners.

Maybe a third wildcard one, and then there's two films that are like, these films have no chance. 1994 was five awesome films that in any other year probably could have won Best Picture. Right, right. Four Weddings and a Funeral is that good. Yeah. And that was Richard Curtis high point. So, little interesting thing on him. It's also worth noting, About Time is not considered as highly regarded as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill what was the other one? Bridget Jones's Diary.

Those are all considered far better than about time. And why do you think that is? I think this has something to do with it.

I had a hard time feeling for Tim, wanting to root for Tim. Sympathizing with Tim? Tim, to me, was unlikable. And I wanted everybody else to be free of him. That's harsh. That came out wrong. No, no, that's right. I wanted everybody else to be free of him. He's like, I feel like he And, and then, you know, there's, there's one other little thing. There's one other little nugget. When he first meets Harry, his roommate. Yeah. He knocks on the door.

And Harry, you can hear Harry inside the building. He's like, FUCK! And he comes to the door and he's like, I just had the greatest idea I ever had, and you ruined it. He never changes that moment. He coulda easily gone back in time five fuckin minutes. And thought, you know what, I'll wait. I'll wait. I'll go to the bar. I'll go to the bar for a half hour. And I'll wait and have a drink. And I'll wait a half hour. And then I'll go knock on Harry's door.

Barbie and then that happens and then he could have got Barbie and he doesn't. Right. And then that scene happens and I'm like, you dick, you could have gone back and fixed it so that Harry has his great idea. He can write it down. You fucking don't even change that. It would have cost five minutes of your life. Right. You fuckin prick! Anyway, I was pissed off from then on. And he coulda just went and had a pint. And it just went over and over and over and over and over again.

Every time he redid this sex scene, I'm like, This is rape, does anybody else see this? Yeah. Like, this is against her will, unknowingly. Yeah, I'm going too far with the rape accusation. But anyway, I just I was just I was just at that point. I was just pissed. I was like, I can't sympathize with this character. I can't feel for this. Well, I don't want him to win

Like, I wanted to deck him like six times. And I if there was a time I got pissed off in Somewhere in Time, it's that at least McKenna doesn't deck him more. She should be like, Look, motherfucker, you're my manager. You work for me. If I want to dick down Superman, I'm going to dick down Superman. And you're going to sit there and like it. But she kowtows to everything he says. He says, no, you are not to see him anymore. Oh, but why? Like, no, you should say, I'm the boss. I pay you.

So that's the part I would get mad at somewhere in time is that she's not strong enough. She doesn't assert herself enough. Yeah. You know what I mean? God, both these movies got me fired up.

But, Charlie Curtis, in fact, has only been in one other movie. A big one. It. No, not, not Charlie Curtis. What was the other one, Charlie? Oh no, you're right. Charlie Curtis was in, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Charlie Curtis. But there was a couple big names in that, in that movie. Yeah. Charlie Curtis was in Chips. Yeah, chips, which was the movie based on the TV show with Michael Pena and Dax Shepherd and Comedy. Right. But also in that film was Vincent Donofrio. Right.

Who was in Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts, who was in Flat Liners with Susan French. Susan French was actually in Flat Liners. Right. She was, so that was easy. She was a terminally ill patient. Yeah. So I was like, hiding right. That was, I got it in three. Well, I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm riding high here.

She was in what? She was in Maze Runner. And he was in that. He was in that as an older kid, because I remember that was his big break. It wasn't a big break. Love Actually was his big break, but he was just a kid. By the time Maze Runner came out, he was like a hunky, young, early twenties. And people were like, oh wow, look at the kid from Love Actually now. He's like a little hunky kid. That doesn't help me though. Well, Love Actually. Love Actually.

No, there's a lot of people in Love Actually, right? So we have to somehow get Love Actually to Blues Brothers. How are we gonna get Love Actually to Bruce Brothers? Well, I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! Holy shit, I got it! Wait, this might be too many, though. This might be past six. Love Actually I'm doing this on the fly, though. Love Actually has Alan Rickman. Right? Alan Rickman's in Die Hard. Right? Are you following me? Okay, Alan Rickman's in Die Hard.

The limo driver, Theo Or no, Argyle. Argyle the limo driver. And Diehard is in Blues Brothers! Is he really? He's the kid that tries to steal the guitar!

He's like, hey! Don't touch that guitar! Like, he just senses it, and the kids, like, get scared, and he runs out. That's Argyle. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. What is his name, though? What is it? I want to make sure I get it right. Devoro White. I said Devoro White. Devoro White. Yeah. Yeah.