classicsoncall Review of Same Time, Next Year

Same Time, Next Year (1978)

"Do you ever get the feeling that we're drifting apart?"

[7/10 · 12 March 2021]

The passing of the years finds George (Alan Alda) and Doris (Ellen Burstyn) meeting annually at the Sea Shadows Inn on California's north coast. What started out as an unplanned romantic tryst in 1951 turns into a yearly event, as the couple shares family war stories in between interludes of romantic passion. The picture examines how both of their lives have changed over roughly five year intervals, with an occasional argument erupting when family realities or opposing political beliefs intervene. Notwithstanding the fact that these are two people knowingly committing adultery, the screenwriting and chemistry between the principals makes for an effective romantic comedy. Interspersed in between the chapter breaks are black and white stills of news events, celebrities and political personalities of their appropriate eras, and if one has been around since George and Doris's first meeting in 1951, the names and memories will come flooding back in a wave of nostalgia. For this viewer, I thought both actors looked their best best in the 1972 segment, when Father Michael O'Herlihy offered his marriage counseling advice to Doris's husband Harry over the phone. Though the film ends on a somewhat bittersweet note, everything that leads up to it is grounded in the the daily lives of two people who get to relive their fantasy once per year without worry or regret.