The Lake House (2006)
Directed by Alejandro Agresti
Written by David Auburn
Starring Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Christopher Plummer, Dylan Walsh, Shorheh Aghdashloo
Release Date June 16th, 2006
Published June 15th, 2006
I have a favorite kind of moment. It's a moment of intimacy that happens rarely. It is usually confined to the first kiss of a new relationship. It is a moment where you and a new love look into one another's eyes and, within inches of each other, share the same warm breathes of air. That moment just before the kiss is my favorite moment, better often than the kiss itself which can sometimes be disappointing. But that moment before the kiss, never fails. The new romance The Lake House starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock captures that moment beautifully as the two fabulous stars play strangers who share more than one first kiss under some very odd circumstances.
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock star in The Lake House as Alex and Kate two strangers who have each lived in a beautiful glass enclosed house on a lake north of Chicago. They meet when Kate moves out of the house and leaves a note to the next tenant to please forward her mail. Returning to the lake house to escape the stress of her job as an E.R resident Kate finds the house still empty but a letter waiting for her. The letter is from Alex an architect who claims to be the new tenant but also that no one has lived in the house before him.
This odd exchange between Alex and Kate takes on a bizarre bit of science fiction when Alex claims to be writing in 2004 and Kate from 2006. Somehow through the magic lake house mailbox they commune through notes that begin to form a running conversation. Naturally, Alex and Kate fall tragically in love. Tragically because they cannot bring themselves to meet. Kate has some serious commitment issues stemming from a bad relationship with Morgan (Dylan Walsh). Meanwhile Alex is distracted dealing with his brilliant but difficult father (Christopher Plummer).
One of the fun and frustrating things about The Lake House is how often you will be distracted trying to keep track of it's competing timelines. Keeping track of the many things Alex does in the past that effect what happens to he and Kate in the future is a futile effort that left me with more questions than answers. A remake of the Korean film Il Mare, The Lake House fails to explain away the same logical questions that film failed to answer. However where Il Mare is a little unsatisfying in it's unanswered questions, The Lake House colors over similar problems with star power.
Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have sensational chemistry stemming from their history together from Speed and the maturing of their star personas. Neither has accomplished the kind of star power predicted for them but that has not dimmed their appeal in the right roles. Alex and Kate are near perfect roles for each as Reeves is not forced to concentrate to hard and Bullock just has be her naturally huggable self.
The films best performance comes from Christopher Plummer as Alex's father. As an aging world renowned architect Plummer perfectly captures the curious proclivity of the genius to be as cruel as they are brilliant. The skills most hone into being a loving compassionate human being are, for the brilliant, often channeled directly into their work with little left for trivial matters like other people. Watch as Plummer takes on a vocal tic in the role that is pitch perfect in capturing his halting attempts to find the humanity a normal person is supposed to have.
Director Alejandro Agresti, working in America for the first time after years of work in his native Argentina, brings a lush visual tone to The Lake House that is especially loving of the architecture of the Chicago setting. At times the architecture is so lovingly captured that the film becomes more of a tourism calendar and less of a romantic drama. Of course with a love story as convoluted as Kate and Alex's getting lost in the architecture at least draws your mind away from the mind bending plot issues.
I am willing to look past many of the problems with The Lake House because these two stars are so great together. It's long been a hobby of mine to trash Keanu Reeves for his slacker style and slack-jawed delivery but here and in his previous film Constantine Mr. Wind Through The Mountains (that is the meaning of the name Keanu FYI), has really begun to mature into a likable screen presence if still not much of an actor.
Sandra Bullock has always been cute and sweet and even in dreck like Miss Congeniality 2 she finds moments to show off just how lovable she is. In The Lake House Bullock has the kind of role we want her in, sweet, shy and longing. Not rooting for her is like not rooting for a kitten to open it's eyes for the first time. Bullock is the perfect romantic avatar, you can't help but identify with her, root for her, and cheer when she gets her big romantic moment.
Let's get back to that kiss I mentioned earlier. While I have been glib in my descriptions of Reeves and Bullock in the past two paragraphs I must admit that they transcend all of that with their first kiss in The Lake House. With Paul McCartney's beautiful love song "This Never Happened Before" playing in the background, Alex and Kate share a slow dance that burns up the screen leading to that moment, that two or three seconds of time where two people make the decision to become one for just a moment. That moment of hot breath shared. This kiss is no disappointment.
The kiss alone is nearly enough to make me recommend The Lake House.
In the end it's star power over brain power for me as I admit, I really enjoyed The Lake House. Forget about figuring out the time line or whether Alex and Kate violated the prime directive by screwing around with time through their magic mailbox, go see The Lake House to see these two glamorous stars fall in the kind of love everyone dreams about. The Lake House is a love story and love has no time for your time travel logic.
