When I’m in the UK, I love perusing charity shops, and nearly always find at least one or two DVDs which I haven’t seen, and which look interesting. One of them on a recent visit was ‘The Lake House’, a film we hadn’t even heard of although it was made in 2006. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star, and the storyline sounded rather unusual…
(Amazon UK link)
We watched it last night, and, on the whole, liked it very much. It was a bit confusing at first, with short scenes and quite a few different characters, but gradually it started falling into place. Perhaps this initial confusion was meant to recollect how the two main protagonists feel at first until they figure out what’s going on.
Sandra Bullock is excellent as Kate, a young doctor who’s extremely busy after just taking on a post at a large hospital. Keanu Reeves is also extremely good as Alex, a young architect who is in the process of moving into a rather run-down ‘lake house’ - a building overlooking a lake. When he looks in the mailbox, he finds a note from the previous owner, asking him to forward her mail to her new apartment. But he knows that the house has been empty for a while…
He replies, leaving a note in the mailbox and a correspondence begins; I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the two quickly realise that they are somehow living in two separate time-frames, with the mailbox behaving like a kind of portal. This foray into science fiction (or fantasy, perhaps) is never explained, and the two seem rather unfazed by it, although they would really l like to meet. They try all kinds of things - Kate telling Alex about things that happened in her past (he is apparently living two years earlier than she is) and he finding the Kate of two years earlier in his timeframe.
This means that Kate’s character appears in both 2004 and 2006, but it’s easy to distinguish which is which by her hairstyle. She wears her hair long and flowing in 2004, but has it short in 2006 when she’s working as a doctor. Even so I found myself puzzled at times about how something was happening; there are so many potential plot holes in a time-warp story that one simply has to accept that this is how it’s written. And that yes, one person can affect the past, even though it’s already happened…
I had guessed fairly early on what had happened to Alex, meaning that he didn’t follow up on planned phone calls or meetings in Kate’s timeframe, but it wasn’t explained until near the end, which is tense, and ultimately satisfying, albeit a tad unrealistic (even given the nature of the film).
Christopher Plummer is a wonderfully irritable and self-centered father who doesn’t want anything much to do with Alex, or his brother Henry (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). There are other minor characters - Kate’s boyfriend and Alex’s girlfriend, for instance, and Kate’s mother - who flesh out the storyline. Jack, a dog who seems to exist in both timelines and wants to live in the Lake House is a delightful addition to the film, although it’s not entirely clear whether the dog is male or female.
Reality has to be suspended while watching this film, and I suspect that future viewings may not make the timeframes any clearer, but overall we liked ‘The Lake House’ very much indeed, probably due to the excellence of the acting and helped by the attractive locations.
The rating on our DVD is 12, but apparently it’s PG in both the US and UK, so I’m not sure where the 12 comes from. There’s some strong language but it’s not excessive, and a nasty accident, but not too much gore is shown. Refreshingly, I don’t recall any incidents that were sexual in nature, nor any nudity. However it’s not the kind of film likely to appeal to children anyway, given the nature of the story.
Recommended, if you don’t mind a bit of fantasy thrown into a romantic film.
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