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Same
Time, Next Year (1978)
 
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Directed
by:
Robert
Mulligan |
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COUNTRY
USA |
GENRE
Comedy/Romance/Drama |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Samme tid
neste år |
RUNNING
TIME
118
minutes |
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Produced
by:
Walter Mirisch
Morton Gottlieb |
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Written by
(based on his play):
Bernard Slade |
Review
With
Same Time, Next Year, Robert
Mulligan has a tender and somewhat discreet approach in his direction,
always staying on the safe side and never letting either his images or
his storytelling become overly sexualized. Still, he manages to
discuss in detail how the times in the latter part of the 20th century went from rigid through liberal to
individualistic – both in terms of sex, social conventions, gender
equality, and the political situation in general.
The simplicity of Bernard Slade's brilliantly chiselled-out
play turned script is also its genius, as
we get to know George (Alan Alda) and Doris (Ellen Burstyn), both more or less happily married to
their separate spouses, who meet up the same weekend for 26 years
straight. What may come off as somewhat contrived at first glance
gradually grows on us as we get to know our two protagonists, and
through them their families and their country. The film's stagy nature, deploying practically only one set, might seem like something of
a confinement, but this turns out not to be the case. On the contrary, Mulligan makes the
outside world
come alive around these two people inside the little cottage by
the ocean. It's amazing how we through George and Doris start caring
about people we've never seen. We grow with our two lovers; we live
and breathe their personal developments, while at the same time becoming
progressively moved by their deep but constrained affair. Burstyn
transforms from a naïve, unknowing girl into a mature, self-assured woman,
and Alda, who starts off seeming like a young Hawkeye Pierce, eventually
elevates his performance to arguably his very finest.
Same Time, Next Year is a special
little piece that hasn't received the recognition it deserves.
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