CNS Movie Review: The Lake House

The Lake House

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The stars of the action-packed "Speed" from 1994 reunite for a romance that is anything but speedy.

"The Lake House" (Warner Bros.) is an intriguing if slow-moving time-warp love affair that is, at the very least, quite unusual in its concept.

Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is moving out of the bucolic Illinois lakeside house to take a job at a Chicago hospital, and she leaves a note for the next occupant in the mailbox, asking him to forward her mail.

That new tenant turns out to be architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), who is puzzled by the note, as he claims he's the first resident there, and some of what Kate has written seems to presage circumstances -- like a dog's paw prints on the floor -- that have not yet transpired.

A bristling correspondence ensues until the two come to realize they are, in fact, existing in different time frames: Kate in the present, and Alex two years earlier. It's surprising with how much complacency they accept their time-traveling postal abilities, but before long they find themselves falling in love through their letters, which can be delivered through the house's stand-alone mailbox. (Alex puts an envelope in the box in his time frame; Kate removes same in hers.)

Kate has a fondness for Jane Austen's "Persuasion," with its mismatched lovers who come to learn that it's never too late for two disparate souls to come together, a theme which permeates the film.

Both are at a crossroads in life: Kate beginning her new job at a hospital where she works with Dr. Anna Klyczynski (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and Alex coming to terms with his estranged architect father, Simon (Christopher Plummer), whose career-driven hardness alienated his family, and who now faces a serious heart ailment. It was Simon who actually designed the lake house.

Kate had a fiance, Morgan (Dylan Walsh), with whom she broke up after he observed Kate kiss a stranger at her surprise birthday party. Much to Kate's amazement, it finally dawns on her that the man was Alex.

In its theme of love transcending time, the film resembles such cinematic fantasies as "A Portrait of Jennie," "Somewhere in Time" and "Kate and Leopold."

But here, the characters never step outside their respective life cycles, except in their correspondence. Director Alejandro Agresti employs several split-screen scenes where the couple speak to each other on screen, but clearly in two separate worlds. They also share the same dog, as the mutt starts out in Alex's care but later (earlier?) becomes Kate's pet.

You may be tempted to say "Well, why don't they just ..." and there are plenty of head-scratching loopholes so you need to apply a major suspension of disbelief. For the record, there is a plot element that keeps the would-be lovers apart, and you may guess it before it is actually revealed.

All in all, though the movie never really grips, the fantasy is intelligently adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn ("Proof") from a 2000 South Korean film, "Il Mare"; the leads are appealing; and the story of two unhappy people trying to make a connection is touching even if sometimes perplexing.

The film contains just a couple of instances of mild profanity and a crude word, and a brief but violent traffic accident, though otherwise refreshingly free of objectionable content. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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