From the intro to my new book on Time-Jumps, Time Tells: A Visual-Essay on Time-Jumps:

In the case of Broadcast News (1987), the movie’s single time-jump, “7 years later,” fails to remedy the problem of ill-timed love. The film’s use of the time-jump is put into crisis as both trope and narrative device. The time-jump clocks the terrible realization of irreconcilability. For time is not the problem, mismatched ethics are—–something time cannot rectify for Tom and Jane. The time-jump merely underscores the irreconcilable and logistical gap that never closes. The two lovers could not be together then and they cannot be together now. Time passes, but the problem is interminable. Is counted. Then remains present in now. The reason for Jane’s breakup with Tom endures across and through time as what could not and cannot be resolved. The wrong time is actually the wrong person who nevertheless still recalls something that also felt fated and right.

Crossposted with Love Dog.