Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) is approached at his party by an unknown old lady who asks him to "Come back to me" and leaves him a pocket watch. Years later, he returns to the same hotel and discovers that she's Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour),a famous stage actress from long ago. He finds some of her effects including a book from Dr. Gerard Finney about self-hypnosis time travel. After much effort, he travels back to 1912 and tracks down Elise. They have an electric connection as her manager William Robinson (Christopher Plummer) tries to keep them apart.

It's a romance but Reeve and Seymour are not together for most of the movie. It takes almost half of the movie before the two actors actually have a scene together. It's a very long build and I'm not convinced why he's so taken with her. It's almost a given as love at first sight for both characters without much explanation. I guess they are star-crossed lovers but the characters are a little older than Romeo and Juliet. Reeve with his leading man looks easily keeps the time-traveling romance humming. Seymour is lovely. Plummer is a fine villain. The drama is never very thrilling. It has a sweet poignant melodramatic sentimentality which serves it well in the end.

I truly believe that the viewer needs to be brought into the secret world of any movie. Fantasy require us to at least understand how and why something is done. I'm not talking even in a real sense. In this film the business of time travel is left for us to figure out. Is it time travel or dream or is it something else. Once Christopher Reeve gets to his destination, it becomes a maudlin love story. Nothing spectacular. Granted Jane Seymour is breathtaking and the period is nice to look at. But what are the rules? How did it happen. Are we fairly treated when it is all done? Personally, I don't think so. I have to be honest with. I never cared whether they would get together or not. The oppression she lives under doesn't seem all that severe, so a resolution doesn't really carry us along. Also, I Christopher Reeve was a wonderful man, but I have to say that his acting seems really stiff. If his love is looking for adventure, she has found a truly dull person with little to say than a lot of clichéd romantic phrases (seemingly rehearsed). Also, why does he feel so lost in his life. It's just not put to us.

O.K., so there is a lot to grumble about here as far as reality and some missing plot points, but why gripe about a film that never ceases to leave me without shedding a ton of tears? Some people may complain that the constant repeat of Rachmaninoff's beautiful music is manipulative and overdone, that there is a lack of humor, and that so many things in the film just don't add up. But when you are touched by a film like this, hard-hearted critics don't matter, you forgive the mistakes, and overlook some of the sillier touches. What results is a time-travel drama about never-ending love that grabs you from the moment an old lady (Susan French) approaches aspiring playwright Christopher Reeve, places an old watch in his hand, and whispers, "Come back to me".

Who is this beautiful old woman with the face of an angel still wearing turn of the 20th Century get-up and why is she interested in a total stranger? Well, it takes years for Reeve to discover his own interest in her, and it is all by accident. I thought for years that the beautiful Hotel del Coronado near San Diego was the setting for it, having passed by that landmark back in the early 1980's, but further research proved me wrong, even though the original novel was set there and that they had originally intended to film it there. It is a beautiful resort right on Lake Huron where Reeve ends up, coming face to face with a portrait of the legendary stage actress who suddenly retired after a stage appearance there in 1912, ironically the same year as the Titanic disaster.

Researching her, Reeve discovers she is none other than the gorgeous old woman who approached him years before, now deceased, and realizes that somehow they are connected. A discussion with a time travel expert makes him realize he must travel back to meet her, and somehow he does. She (Jane Seymour) somehow recognizes him, but her jealous producer (Christopher Plummer) is suspicious. Somehow, he knows just who Reeve is, and believes that this will destroy her. Plummer schemes to keep them apart, but time travel, as Reeve was warned, is a dangerous thing, and just as romance begins to bloom, irony strikes leading to tragedy.

There is a gem of casting with Jane Seymour as the young Elise and Susan French as her in her 80's. Ms. French was everywhere in the 1980's: on "Dallas", "Falcon Crest", "Bare Essence", "Little House on the Prairie" and many other T.V. series. It seems to be more than a coincidence that their story is almost similar to that of Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart's in "Titanic", with a brooch the prop of history rather than Elise's watch.

Reeve, following up "Superman" with this romantic drama, was a sensitive young actor, and he puts his whole heart into this project. Romance is the word here, and the ability to suspend disbelief is a must in order to appreciate every aspect of this sweet story. Bill Erwin is memorable as Arthur, the old bellboy whom Reeve crosses and meets as a young toddler decades before, and veteran actress Teresa Wright good as old Elise's former companion who reveals Elise's past to Reeve when he visits her.

The gorgeous Seymour is a radiant leading lady, filled with both fire and femininity, and here is as far from "Dr. Quinn" as you can get. This film unfortunately flopped badly during its initial run due to a cynical nature of the world in the early 1980's where the rise of block-busters stood in the way of a quiet old-fashioned fantasy romance from becoming a hit. Fortunately, there are many other non-cynics who are able to see with their heart and leave their brain on pause when watching films like this, and thanks to audiences like us, this film has gotten the cult status that it deserves, even though it is far from the typical cult film as you can get.