55 thoughts on “Top 5 Time-Traveling Romances

  1. Somewhere In Time – yes, it’s sappy but what a great way to waste a couple of hours!. And Brigadoon just to watch Gene Kelly dance.

  2. No Kate & Leopold? Hugh Jackman was quite yummy in this! Lol

    But Somewhere in Time really is the standard all other time travelling romances need to measure up to.

    1. Kate & Leopold is the one I thought of, too, but to be fair I haven’t watched any of these. Then I also recalled it’s mostly in the 2000s, so for most of the movie it’s just that one historical outfit on Hugh Jackman. But interestingly they picked a 2000s style dress that doesn’t look totally-totally ridiculous when Kate goes back in time. :-)

  3. okay, I’m irritated. No, you stupid moron nuclear scientist, it’s not because she looks the same that she’s the same person. Oh, but silly me, looks are what counts. grumbles

  4. Well we know I’m a huge Outlander fan, but also love Brigadoon and Somewhere in time. For a fun time travel romance I’ve got to go with Lost In Austen. BTW don’t let Diana Gabaldon hear you call Outlander a romance, she’ll deny it vehemently.

    1. Wait, what? I’ll admit to owning but not having read Outlander… but there seems to be an awful lot of copulation happening for it to not be a romance. Maybe she doesn’t think romance is taken seriously? But at this point.. isn’t it a bestselling series and popular tv show now? Should be serious enough.

      1. Ha ha, one of my friends even calls it a “trashy romance” – and I can see elements of that. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. We all have our guilty pleasures. Diana G. might have an aneurysm if she heard it called a “trashy romance.”

        1. She says it’s a love story, not a romance, because romances end when the people get married. She’s written quite a lot about this. :) She also got REALLY mad at B&N for always shelving her books in romance! Finally they realized they’d make more money if they’d move them to fiction.

          1. Yeah, it has to do with people not thinking romance novels are “real writing”, and shuffling it off as just another brainless bodice ripper. rolls eyes.

            Me, I agree with GRRM that it’s much closer to SF, especially the later books. (SF doesn’t have to be sent in the future)

  5. I’m kind of intrigued by what the subtext of this says that 4/5 of these are about men going back in time and falling in love with a woman from the period. I feel like there’s a feminist dissertation in here somewhere.

    1. Patriarchal source material, that’s for sure! Berkeley Square was at least partly based on a Henry James short story, the musical Brigadoon was Lerner & Lowe, & Somewhere in Time is based on a book written by a man. Only Outlander was based on a work originally written by a woman.

    2. Yes, it is a bit weird. I’ve had my “bodice ripper” period too (as one does), and quite a bit of them are about a modern woman going back in time … obviously to find a strong virile man (Fabio! lol) in the past (because obviously present men don’t cut it, must be all the feminism or something roll eyes ). Those never really made it to screen, weirdly. Although, Outlander is right on the mark for that plot

  6. Can we please have a TBT for Somewhere in Time? I know, it’s super schmatlzy, but the costumes are great and Jane Seymour has never looked lovelier. And in conclusion, Christopher Reeve!

    1. The costumes are lovely! Consider this a placeholder bec. I was going to rewatch it (I prob. haven’t seen it since I was a teenager) but I didn’t want to pay for the Amazon rental, which also means I’d only have 48 hours to make screencaps ;)

    1. I LOVE Portrait of Jenny but the costumes are sort of blah so maybe that’s why it was left off. Such an odd movie for the time. I didn’t even know there was a book.

  7. I’m not a romance movie person but Somewhere in Time holds a huge place in my heart. It’s just so damn beautiful!!

  8. Somewhere in time! One of the first non musical costume flicks I watched as a child because my dad was obsessed. He and I still bawl our eyes out every time we see it.

  9. What about Time After Time? … Jack the Ripper steals H.G.Wells’ time machine and ends up in 1970’s San Francisco. Wells chases him there and falls in love with a modern woman. It is time travel, and a romance, but it is travel forward rather than backward, so perhaps doesn’t fit what you were aiming for.

  10. There are also a few time-travelling romances where the direction is reversed. i.e. someone from the past traveling to the present-day future. The one that springs to mind is Time After Time where Malcolm McDowell, playing H.G. Wells, uses his Time Machine and ends up in San Francisco circa 1979 where he falls in love with Mary Steenburgen portraying Amy Robbins, a bank clerk. Also David Warner portrays a more scary than usual Jack the Ripper. Granted, there is not as much scope for period clothing when the time-travel is in this direction. However there is an amusing bit where Amy is somewhat baffled by all of Wells’ garments.

  11. Somewhere in Time is one of my husband’s favorite ever movies. He admired Christopher Reeves very much and I think he’s in love with Jane Seymour, so… It’s a bit corny for me, but I think it’s very sweet that this rough and tumble leather clad motorcycle riding Australian I am married to loves this movie so much that he ever bought the soundtrack and knows the names of all the songs.

    1. That is adorable. Sometimes men are surprising! I was never so shocked as when my dad was the biggest fan of The Notebook in the whole family…. I don’t remember if he got them for himself or received them for Christmas but the DVDs are his—he very emphatically told me that it’s exactly what love is like.

      1. My husband also loved The Bridges of Madison County and insisted I watch it. He convinced me by telling me about the cameras (I am a photographer and my main film camera is the same model Nikon CE uses in the movie). I am not a fan of Eastwood in Romances but I love Meryl. It was good.

  12. I’m going with Outlander and Somewhere in Time. Jean Pierre Dorelac created some stunning costumes for both his leads, Jane Seymour and The incomparable Chris Reeve.
    My third choice is Brigadoon bc of Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. They did a version of Brigadoon in the 1970-1980s with Robert Goulet, Sally Anne Howes and Peter Falk.

  13. Oh, this post reminds me of how much I wanted an adaption of Alison Uttley’s A Traveller in Time when I was in my teens. 1930’s girl goes back to the 16th century and becomes entagled in the Babington Plot (and falls in love). and now I think I have to re-read it. :)

  14. I think there was probably a tv series based on a book called Charlotte Sometimes… two girls share a bed in a boarding school separated by 50 years (or something) – they swap places overnight and have to deal with being in a time not their own. They swap notes hidden in an exercise book hidden in one of the bed posts!

  15. “A Connecticut Yankee (in King Arthur’s Court).” There’ve been several films since 1921, none of which sound like they’ve captured the humor and pathos of the book. Anyone familiar with the Bing Crosby version? (Can’t stand Bing Crosby, but he’s funny sometimes.)

  16. Liza Jane’s mention of “Portrait of Jennie” made me recall another Jennie time travel movie (yes there are two!)…I remembered Lindsay Wagner was in it, and tracked it down…it was called “The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan.” Modern day couple buy an old house, and the wife finds an antique dress in the attic. She puts it on, and is transported to the past. She meets the painter who lives in the house in that time period and falls in love. She returns to the present when she takes off the dress. She goes back and forth between modern husband and lover in the past, until ultimately deciding to stay in the past. The costumes were probably garbage because it was a TV movie, but the ending made a big impression on 9-year-old me.

  17. I’d love to see a film version of Connie Willis’ “Domesday Book.” I don’t remember if there was a romance tucked in it somewhere, but the idea of a modern woman scientist stuck in England during the Black Plague might make for some good—authentic—filmaking of a critical point in medieval history.

  18. But Somewhere in Time really is the standard all other time travelling romances need to measure up to.

    I’m not that big of a fan of the movie. I found the whole story a bit too excessive for my tastes.

    If this had been my list, I would have included “Kate and Leopold”, along with “Back to the Future III”.

  19. I remember seeing The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan as a child and being intrigued by it. Interesting about Diana Gabaldon. She was quite happy to appear at conferences like RWA and RT to promote her books to romance readers but god forbid you should call them romances although her book does have a strong romance. Your local library might have a copy of Somewhere in Time on DVD.

  20. I wonder if anyone else has seen (and loved) For all time ? I feel like no one else knows about it haha

  21. Moondial! Very sweet BBC miniseries based on the YA book about a girl called Minty who’s staying near a country house and makes friends with long dead children from various periods. There’s a wonderful bit in the book where she decides to just wear a nightie for time travelling because it’s easier to pass off as period clothing no matter when she ends up, but the adaptation lacks some of her rationale.

  22. I know you burned this ‘time-travel-movie’ to the ground, in a Medieval Throwback Thursday in 2017.
    But I have a soft spot for this one…
    maybe 😍 Gerhard Butler & “Fanny Price” had something to do with that. 😉
    The rest truly behaved like the Scooby Gang fighting “Tony Blair”🤐.
    Plus it was the first time I saw Rossif Sutherland, before he became “Nostradamus” in ‘Reign’ 🤣
    Timeline
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300556/

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