Watching: Christopher Reeve
Deathtrap and Somewhere in Time
Hello, my friends,
As so often happens, I feel that I am possibly the last person on the planet to join the Christopher Reeve party? I’ve never been a huge Superman person—I have no real issue with the character or the movie, just never hugely connected with them?—and I’d always just associated him with that. Which, woo boy, I was missing out.
Deathtrap
Sidney Lumet, 1982
Rented from Amazon
I threw on Deathtrap because I’d just watched Glass Onion and was looking for a twisty mystery with big characters and a decent amount of humor. It’s based on a play by Ira Levin—author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives—and in addition to Christopher Reeve, stars Michael Caine and Dyan Cannon. Like a lot of movies based on plays, it’s very talky and takes place almost entirely in the same location, so if things like that aren’t your jam, it’ll probably not be a great fit.
Things like that ARE my jam, though, and truly, this is one of those movies that felt like it was made specifically with me in mind: Michael Caine, being an absolute creep! An absolutely rad set that I would legit be happy to live in, though I’d have perhaps fewer weapons hanging on the wall! Meta-nonsense about writing and drama and plays and the Literary Scene! Dyan Cannon, being neurotic and worried and fluttery! And Christopher Reeve, looking amazing in big sweaters and winter boots and slim jeans, being adorable and then scary and then calculating and then dangerous and always, always, ALWAYS magnetic.
I feel like an ignoramus, because I’d assumed that Michael Caine would just wipe the floor with the rest of the cast, but ALL three leads are STELLAR. Everyone shines.
It’s darkly funny and mean and, again, twisty. The characterization is great; it’s nuanced in both the writing and in the performances. I just absolutely loved it and am so glad to have finally discovered it.
A few minutes later they were in Piper’s office, its walls lined with glass cases containing exhibits which Miss Withers found gruesome yet fascinating. She noted dozens of revolvers, of varying makes, a knife or two rusty with brownish stains, a coil of silk rope, a hatchet… and a sash-weight. “Those are murder instruments I’ve collected in fifteen years on the Homicide Squad,” said Piper.
—The Penguin Pool Murder, by Stuart Palmer
Somewhere in Time
Jeannot Szwarc, 1980
Watched on Tubi
Oh, wow. This movie. This movie is WILD.
So Christopher Reeve is an up-and-coming playwright, and after a particularly successful production, he’s approached by an old lady who presses a pocket watch into his hands and says, “Come back to me,” and then just, like, leaves?
The encounter absolutely shakes him, but he has no idea who she is or what she’s talking about.
A few years later, he has a massive case of writer’s block and on a whim, heads off to a gorgeous hotel to see if a change of scene will help.
The hotel has a museum, in which an old-timey photo of Jane Seymour is predominately featured, and he immediately falls in love. Long story short, he realizes that the old lady WAS Jane Seymour, and then realizes that if she knew him, he must have time traveled to be with her and so he proceeds to FIGURE OUT HOW TO TIME TRAVEL USING THE POWER OF HIS MIND and then it goes from there.
Depending on your attitude and perspective, it can either be read as DUDE FALLS IN LOVE WITH THE IDEA OF A LADY AND THEN TIME TRAVELS TO STALK HER or SOULMATES FIND EACH OTHER ACROSS TIME.
I found it both unintentionally hilarious AND maddening, so it definitely did SOMETHING for me, although it might be a while before Josh forgives me for this pick, heh. HOWEVER, he loved the location and did also appreciate some of the funnier bits, like:
the lengthy shot of Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer (he plays her protective manager) walking along shortly after Plummer has told Reeve to BEAT IT… and Christopher Reeve is just, like, walking along behind them like a creeper. Not just for a few yards, but for like, FOREVERRRRR
the scene where Reeve comes out of his hotel room with a face COVERED with little pieces of toilet paper due to his unfamiliarity with a straightrazor…and then proceeds to just swan around all morning with the toilet paper stuck to his face because, I dunno, CONFIDENCE
Reeve’s acting choices in the crowd scenes, where his character is clearly just so blown away and delighted by the fact that he’s IN THE PAST
the ending, which OH MY GOD WHAT A CHOICE
Letterboxd users are wonderfully divided, with some five star reviewers saying things like I CAN’T EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS MOVIE WITHOUT CRYING and one star reviewers saying things like A F&^%ING PENNY!??!!!
Like I said, I’m somewhere in the middle, but I’m not mad that I watched it, and if it was playing on a rainy Sunday and I stumbled across it, I wouldn’t click away.
I just realized, too, that he’s a playwright in both movies? Weird.
More soon,
Leila
HUH. I, too, have missed the Christopher Reeve boat, because... Superman. (And those flat villains in glass panes, and what was that even about?) Good to know that he had a whole other acting career sans that movie. I love these movie-discovery posts.
Deathtrap is so much fun. Have you seen Sleuth? Levin is riffing on it a bit here, and it's got another terrific Michael Caine performance alongside Laurence Olivier.