The trailers for The Lake House reminded me of Frequency, and how could they not? Frequency's concept revolved around a short wave radio that connected a son with his father thirty years in the past. The Lake House takes that idea and exchanges the radio for a mailbox, and the thriller aspects for a more romantic slant. The two films are not connected, at least to my knowledge, but that is the impression I got the first time I heard of it.
The Lake House is a remake of Korean film Il Mare. It seems that Hollywood is no longer content to remain within the confines of the horror genre that has been so popular over the past few years, now they are branching out into other areas. I admit to not seeing Il Mare, all I can remember reading of it are the fact that it was positively reviewed. I must also admit that the fact that it was based on an Asian film made the prospect of seeing it all the more appealing. Also, I was mildly interested in the Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock reunion a dozen years after Speed made both of them stars.
This movie had me completely engrossed from start to finish. I am not usually affected by films within the so-called "chick flick" genre, a distinction I don't like to make but which is an effective short hand when talking to friends. I was curious as to the mechanics of this mailbox, how it worked, if there was some sort of supernatural explanation, or was it some kind of space/time anomaly. That is what I wanted to know, along with the potential for timeline screwups. Those were some of the things I was looking forward to seeing , but those thoughts didn't last long as I become enveloped in the intertwining lives through time.
Kate Forster (Bullock) leaves a letter for the next tenant of the glass lake house that she is leaving. Her letter is received by Alex Wyler (Reeves) as he moves in. He reads the letter and is puzzled by some of the things that she wrote, so he writes a letter in return. Kate gets the letter when she pays another visit to the house, in an attempt to escape her lonely life as a disconnected doctor who recently lost a patient who was in a tragic car accident. She reads the letter and finds something a little curious, he dated the letter 2004. Kate assumes it to be a mistake, but soon they are trading letters, almost instantaneously. The pair then realize that they are communicating through time, two years to be exact.
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Article comments
1 - Bookworm Kiki
This was a great movie. There is so much in it that that can lead to great discussions, which is a refreshing treat to find among the hundreds of simply-plotted movies today.