Nächstes Jahr, selbe Zeit

Here is the story of two seemingly happily married people who share intimate and extremely emotional times together over the course of twenty-five years. Through their budding and developing relationship through the years, we see how the world changes from 1951 to 1978 (through still images and music between the years). I found myself completely involved in these characters even though they are doing an awful thing--cheating on their respective spouses for such a long period of time. I have to credit this to the character development and to the actors. This is Alan Alda's finest acting hour. He has always been able to balance comedy and serious drama, going back to M*A*S*H on TV. However, occasionally his dramatic acting style is a little self-important. In this movie, he finds the right note, and there is a scene where he breaks down that is the best acting he's ever done. Ellen Burstyn can deliver a wonderful performance in any movie--whether it's drama, comedy, or horror. The changes their characters go through in the course of two hours seem a bit extreme (she goes from flower child to tough-as-nails business woman, for example), but the changes are meant to symbolize the way the world is changing. A little trite, and not that groundbreaking, but I found this film moving all the same. And that silly song heard throughout has stayed with me.

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!

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!).

I'm an old romantic, and the thought that something like this could happen to me fills me with emotion. Most men would say that this is a chick flick and not give it a second look, but if they would take the time and watch it through they would see more than just a little of their own fantasies wrapped up in this package. The movie is full of some very powerfully emotive scenes, and as masculine as I like to think I am it has me on the verge of tears more than once. A wonderful movie with two great actors, can't wait for the DVD my tape is getting thin.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and when I see it on the TV schedule, I watch it, no matter what time it's on.

1978...that was twenty-five years ago. Wouldn't you LOVE to know what Doris and George have been up to after all these years?

After all, it does fit with the original premise, doesn't it?

Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn are the only necessary actors and they're both still available.

Somebody pick up the ball and run with this!