Time After Time Reviews

When the British Broadcasting Corporation went into making features, they made a few good ones (SILAS MARNER) but more that weren't so good, such as this and THE McGUFFIN. Molly Keane's novel, not to be confused with Nick Meyer's 1980 movie about Jack the Ripper, is about four siblings--a brother and three sisters--and how they make each others' lives happy and miserable. Jasper Swift (John Gielgud), the brother, is in charge of the kitchen and the garden and trying to keep his sisters--May (Ursula Howells), June (Brenda Bruce), and widowed Lady Alys Crowshawe (Mavis Walker)--from sneering and sniping. They sit and reminisce, and the picture flashes back a few times to see what has caused these people to be the way they are. The film's talky, with not particularly good talk. The scenes in the mansion in Ireland are moodily photographed, and there are a few moments of humor but not enough to leaven the essential yawnability of the picture.