Movie Review: The Lake House

The Lake House

I'm rarely all that excited to see what's likely to prove a "chick flick," but I thought the premise of The Lake House was intriguing. The fact that it starred Keanu Reeves — long a favorite of mine — didn't hurt, either. And so, together with a friend, I decided that The Lake House was a good way to spend a part of my evening.

The titular lake house is a modern architectural gem. Made mostly of glass and poised atop stilts at the edge of a lake, it represents the peace and tranquility long sought by the woman who rents it, Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock). It's thus with deep regret that she is moving to an apartment in the heart of Chicago to make the commute to her new job an easier one. On her way out the door for the last time, she leaves a note for the next tenant in the mailbox expressing the hope they enjoy the house and that they'll kindly forward any of her mail.

The catch is that the "next" tenant turns out to be the previous tenant, architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves). He moves into the lake house to find Kate's note waiting for him. He's confused by her mention of things about the house that apparently don't exist; he also wonders at her carelessness in mistaking the date for sometime in 2006. He writes back to her with a brief note of his own which, two years in the future, Kate finds just as puzzling.

Meanwhile, Kate does her best to get up to speed on her new job. Dr. Anna Klyczynski (Shoreh Aghdashloo) is her mentor and, as it turns out, enough of a friend to suggest she take a break now and again to get entirely away from the hospital and even the city. Kate typically uses her brief time off to return to the lake house which, in her time, is still empty. But the mailbox usually has a note from the past in it, and she becomes more and more eager to read each of them and to respond herself.

Two years in the past, Alex designs condominiums. That's something his ambitious younger brother Henry (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) views with a certain amount of incredulity given the grandiose plans the two had as children; his father, the famous architect Simon Wyler (Christopher Plummer) makes little secret of his outright disgust with both of his sons. Alex works hard to gain at least some acknowledgment from his estranged father, but the elder Wyler is largely uncooperative. Alex, though, does have one bright spot in his life, and that's his growing feelings for Kate.

Kate and Alex, who are both alone in their respective times, find comfort and eventually deep feelings in their letters to each other. But with two years separating them, their emotions are frustrated at best. It's obvious that the two will have to arrange some way to meet, but fate and their own lives keep getting in the way and confusing matters even more than they already are. Eventually, both begin to wonder if there's any hope at all, either for their own happiness or for the chance to try to share their lives.

Sandra Bullock is often too perky for her own good (though it suits her in many of her movies). She's somewhat toned down here, and does a good job conveying the melancholy of a successful but very lonely woman. Keanu Reeves, who is too often emotionless (again, something that suits many of his characters) is surprising here, particularly in one scene where his display of grief is wrenching. The fact that the two still have the chemistry together they exhibited in their previous effort together (the very successful Speed) also helps. The supporting cast, while certainly adequate (and better than that in the case of Plummer's performance) is almost incidental as the movie rests almost entirely on the shoulders of its two stars.

Director Alejandro Agresti has a lengthy résumé, but the vast majority of his previous efforts have been foreign in origin. That may or may not have proved helpful to him as he worked on this American adaptation of an Asian film. It certainly had some effect on the choices he made where dramatic edits are concerned, and as far as American audiences are concerned, appeared to me to have diluted some impact. More creative editing might have lent itself well to enhancing the parallel but time-separated lives at the heart of the story, and the simplicity of the plot otherwise could have used the help.

Writer David Auburn has the critically acclaimed Proof behind him, but his inexperience shows in the script here. While there are certainly no explanations of the time slip strictly necessary, there are other holes in the plotline that might have been better filled, and there are moments of such unreality that your necessary suspension of belief is strained to the limits.

On the whole, The Lake House isn't a truly bad movie. Its poignance will touch your heart provided you can let go of some of the more jarring inconsistencies in the film. But that it could have been quite a bit better makes the movie almost sadder in the lack of fulfilling its potential than in its admittedly touching story.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Lake House is rated PG for "some language and a disturbing image." Young children aren't going to understand or appreciate a romantic story at all let alone one involving the complication of an apparently time traveling mailbox. The language isn't so rough, though, or anything else so inappropriate, that the average 12 year-old couldn't see the movie if he or she (frankly, far more likely she) is so inclined. How much you'll enjoy the film yourself depends almost entirely on how much you're willing to let its stars carry it for you. For me, the actors could only take it so far.