Time After Time (2011)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Unlike most Hallmark love stories, this one is less about the process of the lovers falling in love and more about using time travel to change what is from the story's viewpoint is the future.We very quickly learn that Dick is really a future version of Richard who has returned to get Richard to correct his mistake of giving up yet again on his true love, Jackie. This isn't going to be easy because Jackie has a boyfriend.In the usual Romance movie, much of the plot centers around how the potential lovers fall in love with each other. In this movie, the plot centers more around first convincing Richard and then having Richard do what needs to be done to change the future which has more to do with being a journalist than being romantic.I really dislike time travel movies that are based on changing history as opposed to restoring it. Since the perspective is not so much changing the past as it is changing the future (its all in the viewpoint), that makes this one a little easier to live with. Dick's attempts to convince Richard are intended to be funny, but I found them to be more clumsy writing and acting than funny.And there was at least at little time spent trying to bring the lovers together again after an 11 year separation. There are a couple of funny moments as Jackie appears more intent on crippling Richard than loving him, but they are really more accidents than intention. There are some warm moments as well.Unlike most sci-fi, there is very little techno-babble, so both the sci-fi fan, and non-fan, may enjoy this different take on Hallmark romance.

In my IMDb persona, I most enjoy finding "bumblebee" movies that is, movies which on paper should have been a dud yet somehow surpassed their own limitations.On the negative side, this is yet another creation of the Canuck movie machine, from the country that via clever tax planning and a chronically weak currency turned B-movies into a cash cow. The locations are Canadian as are most of the players, except the leads of course.It is the plus side the ledger that is interesting. First, the movies starts and ends with a quote from Kierkegaard -- you don't see that everyday.Second when it comes to delving into the paradoxes of time travel - something even the Star Trek franchise agonized over -- these guys had no fear. Maybe it is because they are fearless. Maybe (as with most Canuck films) they were into profit the moment shooting wrapped, so they did not care whether anyone saw ever this or not.To say the basis for the time juxtaposition here is weak is like saying that President Obama sometimes overlooked the democratic process. There are tropes, edits, cuts, even entire scenes that make little sense.But through it all, the cast delivers solid performances and, at the end of the day, you know this is just a very brave love story. So if you watch it with your heart and not your brain, it will engage.In spite of itself.

I thought that this was a decent film; it was gentle, moved at a comfortable pace and gave me a warm feeling. The setting was beautiful, as you would expect of Duncan B.C. and the background score was not intrusive but assisted the atmosphere rather than distracting from it.The actors were all good and likable characters, even the town doctor who strayed (the unethical behaviour which another reviewer mentioned) with someone who was likely a patient. Richard Thomas has always been that actor who is like the home town boy of the Waltons who we all like. He gives just enough of that boy with the angst of the man who left things undone but finally finds a way to make his biggest mistake right.Though there are not many surprises there are a few little twists that make the plot work but basically it's a feel good film to give you the warm fuzzies on a cool day under your blankie.

There was a song that goes time after time, so happy to be in love, etc. The writers of this song should be grateful that it has nothing whatsoever to do with this pretty muddled film.As with all Hallmark themes, a guy comes back to the town that he left 11 years before to discover that the girlfriend he jilted is engaged to the town doctor. It is never explained what the doctor had done which was not exactly ethical.In the town, our guy meets Richard Thomas, who is supposed to be our guy at age 55.Our guy is a reporter and the full story of why the large outlet shouldn't come to town is never fully explained. Is Walmart listening?The ending will confuse all of us regarding who our gal goes with. You're going to be turning your head with this one.