Same Time, Next Year Reviews

Bernard Slade adapted this moving comedy-drama from his play, which ran nearly 1,500 performances on Broadway. The stage producer, Morton Gottlieb, also coproduced the picture. Gottlieb has long specialized in small character plays and also did Slade's ROMANTIC COMEDY as well as Tony Shaffer's SLEUTH. They've opened it up somewhat here to add a few characters, but it never loses the intimate, stagebound quality, which is both good and bad. It's 1951 and Burstyn (age 24) and Alda (age 27) meet at a northern California resort. They are both married, but the Oakland housewife and New Jersey accountant feel a magnetism for each other. They have an affair, but both realize their own marriages are still fresh and do not want to jeopardize their home lives. However, they make a pact to meet every year at this same resort to commemorate the splendor and passion of their first tryst. These reunions are the basis for the remainder of the film. The two grow, progress (and in Alda's case, regress), and change. Alda questions the meaning of life, leaves New Jersey, moves to California, gets a psychiatrist, and decides to become a piano player. Burstyn becomes a hippie, then a successful businesswoman and a grandmother. The changes they go through are the film's assets and liabilities because Alda's sudden conversion to California hipness is a bit shocking and Burstyn's radical move to the Berkeley world is equally abrupt. The story is contrived, but Slade has written in some touching moments and has wisely avoided cheap one-liners. Mulligan's direction is seamless and Gausman's sets are superbly subtle, as they reflect the time passing in the hotel suite. Special plaudits goe to makeup man Tuttle, who ages Alda and Burstyn in a believable fashion. Hamlisch's music is good, but Jane Oliver and Johnny Mathis sing a boring song that somehow managed an Oscar nomination. Nominations also went to Slade, Surtees, and Burstyn (who lost to Jane Fonda for COMING HOME). SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR is filled with good jokes and just as many insights.