Same Time, Next Year Video

Average Rating:

The premise is simple: a man and a woman happen to meet at a romantic Pacific coast inn in the 1950s, spend a night together, and discover that they're both married -- with children, no less! How do they deal with it? Well, after getting past the initial shock and guilt (she yells into a towel, he lies about his wife's name and the number of children he has), they agree to meet every year, same weekend, same place. We, the audience, are allowed to observe every 5th meeting in the same room.

We see the changes in the relationship, the changes in each of the participants, the changing times. We get to know Doris and George through these slices of time, laugh with them, cry with them, always with the question -- will they ever leave their respective partners and follow their hearts? It's definitely a relationship based more on mutual respect and friendship, despite its extra-marital foundation. You get the feeling that these two individuals are truly soul-mates who just happened to meet.

Alan Alda gives an amazing performance, beginning as a guilt-ridden rather milk-toast-ish accountant. Without giving away the plot twists, he goes through many changes and personal crises, and still manages to stay a reasonably likable, vulnerable man.

Ellen Burstyn, as Doris, enters into this as a rather ditzy young wife on her way to a Catholic retreat with the nuns, who manages to grow up over the years. It's a treat to see the changes in these characters with each change of scene.

Bernard Slade's original two-person play with its witty dialogue is preserved almost intact, with only one new character in the movie that isn't in the play ("old Mr. Chalmers"). If anything, the movie improves the original through the music and photo montages that separate the scenes (the entre-acte song, "The Last Time I Felt Like This" was nominated for an Academy Award).

This is definitely worth seeing for the superb performances of Alda and Burstyn.