"The Portrait"

Being a total romantic at heart, and perhaps this tends to lead me to be a tad too idealistic when it comes to my interpretation of what 'true love' means, and the lengths that lovers will go in order to be together.

This movie for me personifies the meaning of 'true love'. It is incredibly romantic, idealistic and utterly soul wrenching. All I can say with a sigh is "if only"!

"The hands of time waits for no man"

"Come back to me". These are the words uttered by an aged actress Elise McKenna to playwright Richard Collier after a performance of his new play. She presses firmly into his hand an old-fashioned time piece. He has never seen her before, but is mystified by his deep reaction to her.

Eight years later too distracted to complete his latest play, Richard drives into the Country. He is drawn to and stays at a remote Hotel on an Island in Lake Michigan.

The Grand Hotel

On a wall in the library of the Grand Hotel he is also drawn to a portrait of a beautiful woman.

"Richard gazing at the portrait of Elise"

He becomes obsessed and falls in love with the women portrayed in it. He begins to research the origins of the portrait. She is Elise McKenna a famous actress who appeared nearby in the year 1912. He also learns that she is indeed the same woman who had given him the time-piece eight years prior.

When Richard returns to seek out Elise for answers he learns that the aged Elise has just recently died. Still needing those answers he returns to the Hotel where he comes to the realization to his utter amazement, that in another life he was once her lover.

He becomes obsessed with the idea of travelling back in time to rejoin his true and perfect love.

Richard with the help of an old philosophy professor wills himself back in time. He meets Elise again, now young, beautiful and acclaimed. Their romance blossoms anew.

"Is it you?" - Elise says to Richard back in the year 1912

Their love blossoms once again

Sadly however the present eventually invades the past and he is hurtled back to his own time. He cannot live without her and tries desperately to rejoin her once more.

His overwhelming desperation leads him to her again but not in the way we expect.

For me this is truly a beautiful movie. If you have the opportunity to see it, please do, and if you too are like me, an utterly hopeless romantic, you will adore it as much as I did and still do.

Music: Taken from "Rhapsody on a theme" from Paganini Opera 43 Composed by Rachmaninoff.

This page was last updated:  Friday, March 31, 2006 11:49:13 PM