Monty Woolley

(On Cable TV, May 2019) Some movies are more interesting as time capsules than stories, and the nearly three-hour ordeal that is Since you Went Away often feels more like time travel than entertainment. Taking us back to WW2 America, it’s a film meant to portray the sacrifices of a nation and bolster morale along the way. It’s occasionally fascinating in how it portrays the minutiae of the 1940s Midwestern-city life and courtship rituals, but the sheer duration and large scope make it feel more like a miniseries than a focused film. I’ll defend its place as a portrayal (however idealized) of the times and how legendary producer-writer (From the opening credits: “Script by The Producer”) David O. Selznick wanted to immortalize it. If you feared an excess amount of sentimentalism, you’ll be half-pleased: there’s a lot of melodrama in Since you Went Away, but the film rarely pulls its punches when it comes to show the deaths awaiting some characters going overseas. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the actors (including a teenage Shirley Temple, and a rather grouchy Monty Woolley), but there is nothing in this film that justifies its excessive length, complete with an intermission. In fact, the repetitiveness of the subplots (so … many … dead … soldiers) and the lack of forward narrative does start working against the film after a while. The endless harping on the same theme gets exasperating the farther we go past the two-hours-and-a-half mark and onto the film’s final staggering 172-minute running time. I’m sort of glad I’ve seen it and can scratch it off my best-picture nominee list, but I’m not sure I’ll ever volunteer to watch Since you Went Away again.