The Lake House Review
Posted by Jacob Ziegler on 06.27.2006
Together for the first time since 1994's "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down..."
THE LAKE HOUSE
June 16, 2006
Alex Wyler: Keanu Reeves
Dr. Kate Forster: Sandra Bullock
Morgan: Dylan Walsh
Dr. Anna Klyczynski: Shohreh Aghdashloo
Simon Wyler: Christopher Plummer
Warner Brothers presents a film directed by Alejandro Agresti, from the screenplay by David Auburn. It is rated PG for language and a disturbing image. The running time is 105 minutes.
BY JACOB ZIEGLER, 411Movies
I love the "Back to the Future" trilogy. I understand that there are holes in its time travel plot, but it overcomes these problems by sheer wit and having fantastic characters. Any time travel movie is bound to have some internal problems, they can be overcome, as Robert Zemeckis' famous trilogy so clearly illustrates.
"The Lake House," from Argentinean director Alejandro Agresti, cannot overcome the intrinsic problems presented by its premise, and winds up being a futile attempt at a romantic drama. Lead actors Sandra Bullock and yes even Keanu Reeves try very hard and even create some moments of genuine drama, but trying to sort this film out logically gave me a headache.
The premise: Alex Wyler (Reeves) and Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock) are living in the same lake house, only they live two years apart. Kate tries to send a letter to whomever the new tenant may be asking them to forward any mail she might get. Alex writes back, and before long the two are exchanging letters on a regular basis, though it does take them a bit of time to realize that Alex is living in 2004 and Kate is living in 2006. The screenplay doesn't even make an effort to explain how a mailbox is capable of achieving this seemingly impossible feat, but I was willing to wait it out and see if an explanation ever surfaced. It didn't.
Stylistically Agresti has some interesting ideas for the film stylistically, but they only further to muddy the creative waters. He places them side by side and existing conversationally, even though they are still only exchanging letters. Seeing them juxtaposed together like that creates more of a jarring effect, since the payoff to the movie is supposed to be them finally getting together. By giving away the payoff in the middle of the movie it makes the ending feel even cheaper. Couples looking for an easy night out may be charmed by the romance and neglect all the glaring problems with the script and premise, but anyone who just saw it by himself because it was right before another screening he had to attend to get paid will find these problems too irritating to overcome.
The acting is actually pretty decent across the board. Neither Bullock nor Reeves are favorites of mine, but they certainly gave better performances than usual (excluding Bullock's exemplary work on "Crash"). They're handicapped primarily by the things in the script that don't work (which are plentiful), and further handicapped by Reeves' trouble looking and talking like an architect; he sounds much more like a construction worker.
Supporting characters like Alex's father Simon (Christopher Plummer), and Kate's other love interest Morgan (Dylan Walsh) further muddy up the waters and distract from the central focus. "Lake House" is based on the 2000 Korean film "Il Mare," which I would like to see for comparison's sake, to see if this idea had any legs in the first place; Agresti's version is built on shaky stilts.
The 411: Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves re-team for the first time since 1994’s “Speed” on this new romantic drama. While it has some good scenes and may have been a better film with some more focus, it ultimately just wanders aimlessly.
