| THE LAKE HOUSE |
 2006 - USADirector: Alejandro Agresti
- Reviewed by Jennifer
Keanu plays Alex Wyler, a real estate developer struggling to build a meaningful life in the shadow of his father, the famous architect Simon Wyler (Christopher Plummer). Upon moving to the lake house, Alex finds a note from Kate (Sandra Bullock), a lonely doctor who's beginning to fear that life and love have passed her by. She asks the new resident of the lake house to forward any stray mail to her new address, but as far as Alex knows, the house has been unoccupied for years. Even weirder, the letter is dated two years in the future. Alex writes back, suggesting that perhaps a mistake has been made, and so begins a love affair for the ages. Though separated by the maddening two years between them, Kate and Alex discover that they share an easy rapport. Because there's nothing else to do in an epistolary relationship, they share their hopes, their fears, and the details of daily life. Without ever laying eyes on one another, they develop a strong friendship, and are willing to fight for one another in whatever ways they can. When their efforts to meet prove fruitless, the logical Kate decides it's time to give up the fantasy and go back to her old boyfriend (Dylan Walsh). Though moving forward in the wrong direction, Kate is getting closer to finding Alex. Will she be able to change the course of history so they can be together, or will we all be left sobbing into our hankies? I won't ruin it for you, but I will say that tears were spilling down my face and I had knots from my stomach to my heart as I waited to find out. It's exceedingly refreshing to watch a movie with no sex, no violence, and no swearing that doesn't come across as feeble and prudish. The Lake House is about ordinary people experiencing an extraordinary connection, and it's nice to see meaning attached to meaningful things: a letter of support at a difficult time, a kiss, an embrace. Both Sandra and Keanu offer up thoughtful, restrained performances without skimping on the humor or charm, and the supporting cast is excellent as well. The always lovely Shohreh Aghdashloo plays Kate's colleague and confidante. Willeke van Ammelrooy, whom I've never even seen before, is Kate's curiously quirky mother, and Christopher Plummer offers up a brief but lively performance as Alex's emotionally stunted father. Just hearing his voice puts a smile on my face. Like most movies about time travel, thinking too hard about The Lake House will make your brain hurt. Unlike Somewhere in Time, I think it actually does make sense, and I'm convinced that with the help of a few old calendars, some charts, and a few graphs, I could map out the entire plot to reasonable satisfaction. That's an awful lot of work, though, and I'd far rather spend my time thinking about Keanu, fate, and how I can get one of those funboxes. |
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The Lake House is the kind of romance that sparks the
imagination and leaves you thinking, "why can't that happen to me?"
or, more specifically, "why can't I have a magical time machine
mailbox?" This postal miracle allows Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock
to correspond with one another through a two year time gap, and I want
one. If Sandra writes a letter in 2006, Keanu will get it in 2004,
and if you stand next to the mailbox, you can actually watch the flag
go up and down as the other person gets your note! Better yet, no
actual mail ever arrives in this mailbox - no bills, no junk, no jury
summons, just letters out of time. It should really be called
something more appropriate, like a funbox, and it leaves me wanting to
stamp my foot and demand one like Veruca Salt in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, "Daddy! Get me a funbox so I can write to
Keanu Reeves two years ago! I want a funbox and I want it now! "
