Time After Time is a relic of the early 80's SF genre which mixed in teen romance with bubble-gum science, having a specific kinship with the Back to The Future franchise. It was made by Nicholas Meyer, most famous for having written and made a film adaptation of the post-modern Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven Per Cent Solution, where Watson, in a bid to cure Holmes' cocaine addiction takes him to Vienna to consult with Sigmund Freud.

Meyer continues his obsession with popular Victorian culture, this time mixing in 2 famous real-life personalities of that age, H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper . In this story, a young and earnest Wells actually invents a Time Machine. Unfortunately his close friend, the surgeon John Leslie Stevenson, is the Ripper and uses the invention to escape into the future. Wells, fearful of what he has unleashed unto his imagined 'utopia', resolves to track down and return the Whitechapel murderer and this quest takes him to...1979 San Francisco.

While the premise may excite genre fans, what is important to understand is that the film doesn't take particular pains to be faithful to the history of either character or play up their peculiarities. Wells, played with a charming naivete by Malcolm MacDowell (who had earlier played the ferocious Alex in A Clockwork Orange) is, apart from a few scenes of cute references, never particularly identifiable as the author of an immense sweep of literature; he could be just another well-meaning anachronistic English hick bumbling his way through the big bad Yank city. Through most of the narrative Jack seems far more comfortable with the technology and mores of the future than the supposed science savant Wells is, and there are few scenes where the characters actually resonate. One is where Jack shows a horrified Wells snatches of television, depicting brutal murders, wars and violent cartoons. "In my time I was considered a freak", he grins, almost ruefully, "here I am an amateur."

Apart from the cat & mouse games that occur between Wells and Jack, the film gives significant attention to a burgeoning romance between Wells and 20th century bank-teller Amy Robbins, a pleasantly stoned looking character, whose approach is quite 'forward' by any standards (inviting a total stranger for lunch and discussing your sexual habits with him at first meeting?), and who is charmed by Wells' naive idealistic curiosities and mild shocks at all her free revelations (despite his claims to be an advocate of free love). Although never particularly touching, the romantic scenes, thanks mainly to the chemistry between the lead actors, have a frothy charm that to a good extent covers up the glaring deficiencies of the plotline. David Warner turns in a suitably chilling portrayal of the villainous Ripper and the visual effects share the cheerful campiness of other movies of that age.

If you're willing to accept that the main characters are never strongly related to their real-life counterparts and that a good part of this movie is a cheeky romantic comedy, it's a pleasant enough watch.