DVD Review: The Lake House

By Patrick Luce Oct 9, 2006, 15:08 GMT

A lonely doctor (Bullock) who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its newest resident, a frustrated architect (Reeves). They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it\'s too late. ...more

The Lake House is an entertaining film, and one that won’t disappoint fans of the romance genre. With that said, the film is rather predictable, and gets a tad too far-fetched towards the ending.

The movie sees the reuniting of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock – although this time there are no speeding buses or crazy bombers trying to get in the way of their romance. It was directed by Alejandro Agresti based on a screenplay written by David Auburn (who also wrote Proof). The film is a remake of the 2000 Korean film Siworae written by Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo.

The movie follows Alex Wyler (Reeves) as he moves into an unusual glass house on stilts over a lake. We soon discover that the house was designed and built by his father Simon Wyler (played by the always great Christopher Plummer). When he arrives, Alex discovers a note left for him in the mailbox by the previous tenant – a doctor named Kate Forster (Bullock).

The note explains that she wasn’t responsible for the dog prints on the walkway and door, and that there was box left in the attic from the person that lived there before her. It also asked Wyler to please forward all her mail. This strikes Wyler as odd since no one has lived in the house for years. Also there are no dog prints on the door or a box in the attic. Instead of just trashing the note and moving on with his life, Wyler decides to write back, and puts the note in the mailbox instead of sending it to her forwarding address (odd?).

We then cut to Kate who is having a rough time as a doctor. She witnesses a man run down by a car (bet you can’t guess who that was), and decides she needs to take some time off. So she drives out to the lake house, and finds Wyler’s note. The two then start communicating back and forth through letters, and they (along with the audience) discover that Kate is two years in the future. Somehow this really doesn’t strike either one as being too bizarre, and they decide to just keep on talking. A friendship develops which quickly turns to romance. At one point Reeves takes her on a walk through the city (by mail of course) that ends with a message that he painted on a wall. I guess the city doesn’t clean its graffiti over a two year period.

Reeves moves to a house with a unique mailbox

Of course, a romance through letters can only go so far so the two decide to meet. Reeves stumbles upon Kate two years in the past, and falls more in love with her (even though she has a somewhat annoying boyfriend at the time), and decides to make his move in the future. The two decide to have a date, but Reeves never shows.  Kate is left heartbroken, and breaks off communication with Reeves in the past. She then gets back with the jerk boyfriend, and decides to make a new life. I can pretty much stop there because I don’t want to spoil the film’s twist ending, and I am sure you already know how the movie will end anyway.

Ok, so here is what works with The Lake House – the film features two actors who know how to handle the genre, and genuinely have good chemistry together. The conversations between Reeves and Bullock (despite some sappy dialogue) are fun to watch, and help you move past the way they are “talking.” The two also help you get past some of the film’s formulaic feel.

Agresti also handles the communication between time periods good, and slowly blends the conversation so that fans get to see both actors on screen together instead of just hanging around an old mailbox. It is fun to watch the moments where Reeves and Bullock almost cross paths in the past or the moments that Reeves leaves a message for Bullock to stumble upon in the future.

Unfortunately, the film starts to lose any sense of believability with each moment that Reeves and Bullock cross paths, or each time Reeves does something to come in contact with Bullock (such as the already mentioned message on the wall). The film does start getting extremely far-fetched by the ending as Bullock tries to warn Reeves of danger. The film’s conclusion is also a little too sappy and predictable to really pay off. Also, the conclusion stretches the plot’s use of timeframe a little too thin, and is simply too much to ask the audience to believe.

Reeves and Bullock do have good chemistry together

The DVD comes with five deleted scenes that don’t really add anything to the movie, but don’t hurt anything. There is also the film’s theatrical trailer.

The Lake House is a good “date” movie. It has enough story and good performances to please fans of the romance genre. There isn’t much more to the film, and some viewers might lose all interest by the time the ending finally does arrive. I, personally, found the movie a bit too predictable and thought the film’s ending to be too much.

The Lake House is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.