Same Time, Next Year (1978) isn't your traditional romantic film but it does a good job in revealing how complicated love can be. It stars Alan Alda as George and Ellen Burstyn as Doris who are both married with children but decide to engage in an extramarital affair. Despite George and Doris both being happily married with six children between them they decide to meet every year at the same time to continue their love affair.
George and Doris first meet in 1951 at an inn on the Mendocino Coast when George is twenty-seven and Doris is twenty-four. The movie is structured as six episodes, each occurring approximately five years apart. Although they decide to meet up every year around the same time the film shows them together every five years to show how much time has past and how much the world around them has changed. Before the film shows George and Doris at their current stage in life there are a series of photos shown to indicate how much history has changed. This same history affects each of them in personal ways and they discuss who they are at that given moment when they are together.
George and Doris go through so many changes from 1951 to 1977 and who they were at the beginning is barely recognizable to who they are at the end of the film. One thing is certain though, irregardless of the adultery and guilt from being in a relationship outside of their marriages, they were not apologetic about loving each other.
Despite this film's subject being controversial in nature, the performance of Alda and Burstyn are sheer perfection. They have so many great lines to say and such an amazing chemistry together that you almost forget that their romance isn't the traditional kind. For example early in the film George and Doris have this exchange; "Doris: You know, I can really talk to you. It's just amazing. I find myself saying things to you that I didn't even know I thought. I noticed that yesterday right after we met in the restaurant. George Peters: We had instant rapport. Did you notice that too? Doris: No. But I know we really hit it off.”
Same Time, Next Year (1978) isn't the every day sort of romantic film but the performances given by both Alda and Burstyn stay with you even days after watching the movie. What are your favorite non-traditional romance films?
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