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The Lake House
Directed by: Alejandro Agresti
Starring: Sandra Bullock
Genre:
Romance
Run Time: 105
min.
Release Date:
June 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
THE LAKE HOUSE fails on so
many levels that it's tough to pin down one thing viewers will dislike
the most. Be it the multiple unexplained fantasy elements, or the lame
acting, or the dumb-downed plot, this film will most likely make you
shoot popcorn out of your nose, not in laughter, but because of
incredulity.
A time-traveling mailbox (and, apparently, canine) bind two lonely souls
together at a lake house. The place was built by Simon Wyler
(Christopher Plummer, INSIDE MAN) for his now deceased wife. Being a
successful architect, his sons fall into the family business too. One of
these is Alex (Keanu Reeves, THE MATRIX), who purchases the house in
2004. Trouble is, though, the house is already owned ...in 2006. Not
usually a problem, but apparently these two years in time are connected
somehow. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock,
CRASH) is the 2006 year owner and
has just sold the place. She leaves a note for the new owner to send all
mail to her forwarded address. But the mail gets picked up in 2004 by
Alex, who's confused about the date she put on her message. When he
sticks his reply in the mailbox, Kate picks it up ...in 2006, two years
later. The two form an "across-time" romance, trying to meet up in
Kate's year but failing. They do bump into one another in 2004 but
neither realizes the importance of it.
Okay, let's start with the basic problems: Why these two and why a
mailbox? The two individuals chosen for this event may be overlooked as
mere coincidence. But the mailbox? Please! Kate and Alex are separated
by two years in time but brought together by the mailbox. The big issue
here is that neither of them find this even remotely disturbing or
incredible. They just accept it. The assumption must be that the script
and director wanted to move on to the "more interesting" love story
surrounding the two protagonists. The problem here, though, is that the
romance is anything but interesting. It's distant (like the years that
separate them), and rushed, and poorly acted. Bullock and Reeves had
more chemistry in SPEED (that ought to tell you a lot!).
Time travel movies are tough to pull off to begin with, and the
challenge for most of them is avoiding the paradox they create. The Lake
House doesn't even try to address this problem and simply plows ahead
without considering the intelligence of its audience. For instance, at
one point Kate (in 2006) goes to an architects office and discovers some
disturbing news. She rushes out to try and prevent it from happening by
sending Alex a letter. And they do avoid the disastrous event. The
trouble is, though, is that if it's avoided, then there never was an
event to begin with because Alex avoided it in 2004, thus, in 2006,
there wouldn't have been this problem for Kate to worry about. Some may
not be bothered by this, but many scientists must be pretty ticked-off
that the film doesn't address this issue.
And the final tragedy is the acting. Both Reeves and Bullock can act.
We've seen them do it. But here they are bland, boring, and completely
unsympathetic. Even Christopher Plummer's character seemed forced and
poorly thought out.
Need a sleep aid? Put this flick in your DVD player and snooooooze away!
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Image from The Lake House
DVD cost: $14.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo?
Yes.
Newsworthy:
The lake house measured
2000 square feet and sat on top of steel beams ten feet above the
waterline. It used 35 tons of steel and required nearly 100 carpenters,
welders and painters to build it.
Movie Quote: "This
house is about connection."
Other Actors/Actresses
from The Lake House
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