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When I first saw the previews for The Lake House, I may have rolled my eyes. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves—been there, done that. Add to that a sappy romantic plot that takes a serious stretch of the imagination, and it just seemed to be a little more than I could stomach. But, as it turns out, I judged The Lake House too quickly.
The film opens with Kate Forster (Bullock) leaving her beautiful house on the lake and moving into an apartment in Chicago, close to the hospital where she’ll be working as a doctor. Before she leaves the lake house, she leaves a note in the mailbox, asking the next occupant to forward her mail.
Alex Wyler (Reeves) takes the note out of the mailbox as he moves into the lake house. It seems a bit strange, though, since Kate mentions a box in the attic (which isn’t there) and paw prints by the front door (which aren’t there, either—until a stray dog wanders up and tracks paint up to the house). He writes a note back and places it in the mailbox.
After Kate fails to save a man who’s hit by a truck on the street in front of her, her advisor urges her to leave the city on her day off—to go to a place where she’s happy. So she heads back to the lake house. There, she finds the note from Alex. Gradually, as the two continue to write one another, they begin to realize what’s happening. Kate moved out of the house in 2006, but Alex bought the house in 2004. Somehow, the two are communicating through time. And through the letters placed in the mailbox, they begin to fall in love.
I was more than a little bit skeptical when I walked into the theater to see The Lake House—but I quickly changed my mind. It’s not as exhaustingly sappy as I expected—and it’s easy to get lost in the story. Sure, it does require a pretty major suspension of reality. You’ll even know, almost from the beginning, that it can end one of only two ways. But it won’t be long before you’re so caught up in it that you’ll have no problem accepting the fact that the two are living two years apart—and you’ll want them to figure out how to work things out. It’s not a logical, realistic story, but it’s a love story—and love is rarely logical. So it works.
My greatest complaint about The Lake House is the acting. Bullock is fabulous. Her performance reminded me why I can’t help but love her—even if I don’t always want to. Reeves, however, couldn’t be more robotic. It’s not that it surprises me, really—but, after all these years, you’d think that someone in Hollywood would realize that the guy can’t actually act. Fortunately, he’s still nice to look at—and his character is just plain adorable. Pairing Reeves with fellow bad actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Alex’s brother, Henry, makes for a few painful scenes. Yet, somehow, Sandy picks up the slack and saves the day.
I found the movie to be a pleasantly sweet and captivating surprise—but it’s best to leave the boys at home. Though my husband reluctantly admitted that he got pretty caught up in the story for a while, as soon as it was over, he began mocking it endlessly. (After everything I said for the rest of the night, he answered breathlessly, “Just wait two years…”) But if you’re looking for a good movie to see with the girls, you can’t go wrong with The Lake House.
