TimeAfter Time is a delightful, entertaining trifle of a film that shows both the possibilities and limitations of taking liberties with literature and history. Nicholas Meyer has deftly juxtaposed Victorian England and contemporary America in a clever story, irresistible due to the competence of its cast.
H.G. Wells and Jack The Ripper abandon London circa 1893 in Wells’ famous time machine. Their arrival in 1979 San Francisco is played for all the inevitable anachronisms, with results that are both witty and pointed.
Thanks to Meyer’s astute scripting [from a screen story by Karl Alexander and Steve Hayes] and direction, and superb performances by Malcolm McDowell as Wells, David Warner as the mythical killer, and Mary Steenburgen as the woman in between, there’s plenty of mileage in Time.
