Dir. Alejandro Agresti, 2006, USA, 99 mins
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Christopher Plummer
Review by Carol Allen
This is a lovely idea for a time-twisting romance, which can be a very
appealing genre. Think, for example, of Somewhere in Time, where
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are separated by nearly a century.
With Kate (Bullock) and Alex (Reeve), it's a mere two years. She quits
the lake house of the title, which she has been renting, in 2006, leaving
a note for the next tenant asking him to forward her mail. He turns
up, finds the lake house in a derelict condition and also her note, to
which he replies, telling her the house has never been let. The house,
which Alex, an architect, sets about restoring, was built when Alex was a
child, by his estranged father (Plummer). Alex is living in 2004.
And so begins an exchange of letters and a growing romance between the
two of them conducted by notes via the "magic mail box".
In many ways, this is a very charming movie. The lake house itself and
its setting is stunning. and the film, which is set in Chicago, uses the
locations of the city very well. Considerable imagination has gone
into their courtship by letter, as when Alex gives Kate a route for a
walk through the city and they take it together at the same time but two
years apart. Or when Alex, knowing Kate's love of trees, plants one
just outside the window of the then half-built apartment block, where she
will be living two years into his future, which she can see fully grown
from her window (quick-growing tree!). It's also a nice touch that
they both share the same pet dog, who's adopted the lake house as his
home. The logic of the chronology, however, is not always clear, as in
the case of a date they arrange for dinner in Kate's time, which Alex
never gets to. Later in the film, we return to an earlier time on that
day, which itself predates their first exchange of notes, for the
story's resolution. You do have to pay attention to keep up.
The main problem, however, is the difficulty of creating chemistry between
two characters who spend most of the film in different places, albeit using
split-screen. And when they do meet - Alex gatecrashes a party he knows Kate will be attending with her then fiancé and they share
what should be a poignant scene, as he knows about
their future relationship but she is in ignorance - those all important
sparks fail to fly. It must have seemed a good idea to reunite the two
stars of Speed. But that, of course, was primarily an action movie.
While Bullock is both strong and appealingly vulnerable, Reeves has a
rather bland personality for a leading-man role. While this is fine
for something like the Matrix movies, his performances tend to be
better when he's playing more of a character role, such as the eccentric
toy boy dentist in Something's Gotta Give, rather than a romantic lead
as such. There are times in this when he looks as though he's thinking
about something else. John Cusack, I hear, was originally approached for
the role. He would have been better casting.
The film does, however, pass the time pleasantly enough, and the climax, although giving us a bit of a neat Hollywood-type ending, has
a satisfying dramatic tension. Plummer makes an impact with comparatively little screen time as Alex's neglectful father. And the
dog's good, too!
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