Review: Time After Time

Beginning in the 1890s, Malcolm McDowell stars as H.G. Wells, who has gathered together a group of friends and colleagues to show off the new time machine he has just invented. Yes, he invented it. Unfortunately, it’s at this time that the police show up looking for the man responsible for the Whitechapel murders, y’know that Ripper of a fella named Jack. And while Wells is dealing with the cops, one of his guests Dr. Leslie John Stephenson has decided to commandeer the time machine and heads for the future. Yep, you guessed it, Stephenson is the Ripper. When Wells realises what has happened, he sets about going after him, landing in late 70s San Francisco, where ‘ol Jack is starting to get up to old tricks. Whilst trying to track down Stephenson, Wells takes in the marvels of the modern era, lamenting that it isn’t the violence-free utopia he had envisioned. He does, however, meet a sweet bank teller played by Mary Steenburgen, so the future’s not all bad I guess.

 

One of the best time travel movies you’ll ever see, and one of the rare times you’ll see Malcolm McDowell play a mild-mannered hero, this 1979 ripping yarn comes from writer-director Nicholas Meyer (director of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and “Star Trek VI: Better Than the Shatner One”). The creepy opener is terrific, with one of the best music scores in the career of Miklos Rozsa (“Double Indemnity”, “Spellbound”), and lovely thick fog-set atmosphere conjured by Meyer and cinematographer Paul Lohmann (“Coffy”, “Nashville”). Rozsa deserves a particular mention because he bloody well should’ve been nominated for an Oscar here. I’m not sure what the point was of disguising David Warner’s true identity in the opening scene given how quickly we find it out anyway, so that was a little strange. It’s a bit of a shame about the Roto scoping FX, but this is 1979 we’re talking about. And some of the FX do have a certain charm to them.

 

It’s interesting that this was made around the same time as the infamous “Caligula”, as McDowell shows here that he can indeed play a good guy, and a mild-mannered one at that. He’s terrific, though some of his villains have a certain charisma and impish, rascally spirit to them too, when one thinks about it. He has a thoroughly charming timid quality to him here mixed with a certain aloofness, but one born out of such an overwhelming overload of curiosity in his ‘futuristic’ surroundings. He finds it a bit hard to focus on what people are saying to him, because he’s so fascinated by everything.

 

David Warner is an interesting choice for Jack The Ripper, at first glance you’d think he and McDowell would do better in each other’s roles. However, as an evil intellectual match for Wells, he’s bloody good. Whether that makes him a convincing Ripper might be another matter, however. The Ripper may have been skilled and knowledgeable in surgical matters somewhat, but I’ve never suspected a great intellectual mind there. He seems more Bond villain than 1800s cobblestone street stalker. But then, no one knows who he was, so it doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s a shame, though, that the Ripper character is a bit underdeveloped. Warner brings his A-game, but I wanted to get inside his head a bit more. Eventually, we start to see more of a sense of his homicidal impulses and their motivation, and it proves to be the bad guy performance of Warner’s career. I wanted more depth still, but Warner’s really very good here.

 

Mary Steenburgen (later to feature in another time-travel film, “Back to the Future III”), meeting her real-life future (and now past) husband McDowell on this film, looks shockingly young. I’ve never been terribly much of a fan of hers, but this is by far the best performance of Steenburgen’s career. It’s the clichéd ‘woman who meets someone from the past/future and assists them’ role, but this is by far the best example of such a character. She’s genuinely very sweet and a nice match for McDowell, even without the knowledge of their eventual real-life union. At one point she also manages to look convincingly paralysed with fear by Warner.

 

Truth be told, fish-out-of-water comedy rarely works for me, and this film indulges in a bit of it, with Wells attempting to navigate a McDonald’s menu, for instance. Usually films with such humour end up themselves being fish out of water, horribly dated and corny. However, scenes of Wells going to pawn shops and banks are far more interesting and acceptable, and Meyer handles these scenes far better than Leonard Nimoy did in the overrated “Star Trek IV: The One With the Whales”. I also thought it was cute that Wells gets disorientated from taxi travel at one point. The reason why Meyer gets most of this fish-out-of-water stuff right is that he adds a societal statement/commentary to it. After all, this is the same film where Wells believes the future (i.e. The late 1970s) to be a utopia, and would have stamped out violent crimes like those of the Ripper murders from his time. This of course is laughable, because there were plenty of serial murders in the 1970s and 80s, and Meyer no doubt knew this. Also look at the very funny timid reaction Wells has to witnessing a war movie. Funny, but with a point. Likewise, it’s amusing how easy the Ripper is able to pick up his trade in 70s San Francisco. It’d be even funnier if it were set in Yorkshire, though (Think about it, crime buffs).

 

**** POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING **** I do think, however, that Meyer cocks up at one point by having Wells need to get the cops to check on Steenburgen by confessing to the murders himself. If they believe he’s a self-confessed murderer, why the fuck would they do anything for him? Also, after the film is over, Meyer gives us an epilogue telling us all about Wells’ life and death. Given everything depicted in this film, I’m not entirely certain if any of it really makes sense. I have my doubts, though. **** END POSSIBLE SPOILER ****

 

This isn’t a perfect film by any means, but it’s a terrific yarn with a trio of excellent performances and even a cameo by a young, though unmistakable Corey Feldman. Keep an eye out for him at the museum. I don’t normally advocate remakes, but I reckon this one could fare well with another go round, and not just with whiz bang FX, either. If you like your time travel films, this is one of the best and features Jack the Ripper and H.G. Wells as an added bonus. What’s not to enjoy?

 

Rating: B