THE LAKE HOUSE
Loving forward, looking back
PopcornReel.com Film Review: "The Lake House"
By Omar P.L. Moore/June 12, 2006
Without deliberate "Speed": "Speed" co-stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves
caught in love's time warp;
Christopher Plummer (far right) and company assess an architectural drawing or
two in Alejandro Agresti's "The Lake House." (All photos
seen here by: Peter Sorel)
"I'm very sure this never happened to me
before," Paul McCartney sings midway through and during the end credits of "The
Lake House", Alejandro Agresti's new film about love between a lonely doctor
(Sandra Bullock) and an architect (Keanu Reeves). Whether the love that
binds these two souls happens in the past, the present, the future or in a
two-year time-delay, one thing is certain: the film is worth the bother and the
trouble of enjoying, enduring and finding out where and in what state their love
lies.
Enduring love is something that Dr. Kate Forster (Ms. Bullock) who has just
moved from an isolated glass house by a lake in suburban Illinois to take a job
at a Chicago hospital, has been searching for. She denies that she's
searching for love, but after conversations with a fellow doctor (Shohreh
Aghdashloo) comes to grips with the reality that she is lonely and that true
love may have passed her by. After renting the lake house to Alex Wyler
(Mr. Reeves) they begin an exchange of letter-writing that at first is snippy
but then blossoms into something warm, tender and magical. They insert
notes to each other through their mailboxes, whose red handles flip up and down
by themselves, giving the "novelty" of instant messaging or e-mail a severe run
for its money. Snail mail was never delivered this fast.
These scenes of enchantment and immediacy signal that we are being taken to a
special place on love's highway, and Mr. Agresti doesn't apologize for taking us
there.
The house that Alex has inhabited is in need of
repair, as is his relationship with his cauterized father Simon Wyler
(Christopher Plummer), a distant figure who likes to speak about himself to Alex
in the third person. Simon is an architectural legend and he teaches at
his own school. He has long forgotten his wife, and barely relates to his
sons, including Alex's brother Henry (Ebon-Moss Bachrach), whom he teaches.
Simon happens to have designed the lake house and Alex is determined to make it
a renewed palace. Meanwhile, Kate has had sleepless nights working at the
hospital and takes a good bit of advice from Ms. Aghdashloo's Dr. Klyczynski
character: "go to a place where you feel like your true self." The lake
house is that sanctuary for Kate. Kate also has to wander through the
issue that is her boyfriend Morgan (Dylan Walsh of TV's "Nip/Tuck"), an
overzealous and mildly possessive lawyer who soon finds that the power of love
surpasses even his expectations.
The enchanting and mysterious lake house.
Sandra Bullock and Shohreh Aghdashloo as doctors. Ms. Aghdashloo counsels
Ms. Bullock on the matters of romance in Alejandro Agresti's "The Lake House,"
based on the South Korean film "Il Mare" (2000).
Symbolically, the feeling of love is powerful, indescribable, complex and often irrational, and such feelings are illustrated through the time shifts and special moments of magic that weave their way into "The Lake House". Sometimes this is conveyed through the subtlest of visual effects, but most often the joy of love and the chasing of strong desire is displayed through good dialogue, acting and editing, which is the film's best asset. While the shifting of the sands of time may frustrate, it adds an intriguing element to what would otherwise be a straightforward story of love chased, lost, and gained. To many in the world, love between supposedly "mismatched" human beings defies comprehension, so why not have love between beings living in different calendar years? Love does not have to make sense for it to be perfectly sensible. Though the time-shifting may actually have worked better live on a stage in a theatrical production than on a big screen in a movie house, the story progresses rather comfortably as the task of following which year the protagonists of love are in becomes less arduous. The pacing of this romantic drama feels more European than American, thanks to Argentinian director Agresti, and his style probably suits this subject matter more appropriately than say, Rob Reiner, James L. Brooks, or Nora Ephron's styles might.
As for the acting craft, Sandra Bullock is on a roll. After last year's
solid dramatic performance in the Academy Award winning Best Picture "Crash",
she goes from strength to strength here with an authentic turn as a woman who
seeking love at a time where it seems that its twilight has come and gone.
Ms. Bullock carries a warm, heartfelt presence and conveys the emotion,
intelligence and complexities of her character's roller-coaster ride through
time in a thoroughly believable way. She is terrific here.
Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves does just fine as Alex, with a performance similar in
some ways to (but with more depth) than his appearance in "Something's Gotta
Give" (2003), where, interestingly enough, he plays a doctor falling head over
heels for Diane Keaton.
Mr. Reeves' career has been a mix of comedy, action and drama, as well as the
doomed romance film "Sweet November", set in San Francisco, and here, his
character mentions that city fondly. The chemistry between Ms. Bullock and
Mr. Reeves is real. Since their days together in the 1994 action film
"Speed" they have developed a friendship off-screen and a mutual admiration that
is genuine. This helps Mr. Agresti's film as well. Ms. Aghdashloo,
in the few scenes she is given, provides some humor and her doctor role in this
film marks consecutive films in as many months where she wears the lab coat.
("X-Men: The Last Stand", released last month, is the other film where she plays
a doctor.) She too seems to have a thing for San Francisco -- in the 2003
film "House of Sand and Fog" her character lived very close to San Francisco
with on-screen spouse Ben Kingsley; in "X-Men: The Last Stand" she works at the
company plant located on Alcatraz Island.
April 2004: Keanu Reeves reads
Sandra Bullock's 2006 letter...
and....Valentine's Day 2006: Sandra Bullock awaits Keanu Reeves' response.
The best way to summarize "The Lake House" is if you put the films "Vanilla Sky" and "Sliding Doors" together and shook them up in an imaginary movie cocktail, Mr. Agresti's film is probably what you would be left with. Though this PG-rated film has none of the intensity of "Vanilla Sky", there is a theme of rebirth and love reborn that compares well. In "Vanilla Sky" Penelope Cruz tells Tom Cruise that "every second is another chance to turn it all around." Throughout "The Lake House" Ms. Bullock and Mr. Reeves are making the most of all those chances, even if they may not be doing so at the same time, situated in the same calendar year.
Recalling love and re-living it is the
strongest theme that Mr. Agresti delivers. By the time the film is over
and we realize that the main characters have been far closer to each other in
reality than they even were in ethereal ways, there is a touch of melancholy in
the happiness and euphoria that envelops us. For the power of love across
distances, time zones and dimensions is as profound as the ups and downs of the
journey that is traveled to reach that priceless destination. "The Lake
House", whose credits advertise that Mr. Agresti's film is based on the 2000
South Korean motion picture "Il Mare" (and written by David Auburn), delivers
the goods for hopeful and hopeless romantics alike, whether alone or idealistic
(or both), whether aspiring to find the love of one's life, or relishing,
treasuring and re-living the joy of love all over again, with that special
someone.
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