Chick Flick Sci-Fi: The Lake House
By stephanie - Saturday, June 24th, 2006
I’m visiting my mom right now in Florida; what better movie to go with ma see than The Lake House, a romantic tale of two loves lost in time. The Lake House stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves (reuniting onscreen for the first time since Speed) playing two time-crossed lovers, Kate and Alex. The two somehow figure out they are connected by a magical mailbox (and a psychic doggie) even though they are separated by years.
Each time a letter is put into the mailbox, it either travels forwards or backwards in time (approximately two years). He is in the past, she is in the future, and even though they both live in the Chicago area, somehow finding a way to meet and connect in real time and space is difficult for both.
While it’s hard to believe that any two people could fall in love so deeply and fast over some letter-writing, we do see this happening on the Internet all the time. At times, the mailbox was seeing so many letters shoot back and forth so quickly, that the gal sitting next to me giggled and called it “instant messaging.”
As science fiction films go, The Lake House is obviously more chick flick than hardcore sci-fi, and it fiddles around with time paradoxes that we’ve already seen done to death on the various Star Trek installments. The Lake House, however, brings it into more realistic, if mystical turns, since it affects “real” people living “real” lives, and Spock’s not involved attempting to calculate a slingshot around the sun. In this sense, it’s refreshing.
I’m actually not a huge fan of time paradoxes in general; I feel they are way overused in science fiction as cheap plot devices, and they don’t make sense to my logical, linear mind. The Lake House, to its credit, manages to focus on the emotions involved and not whether any of this makes logical sense (since it does not).
Both Bullock and Reeves do a great job, and I would love to see them paired again onscreen. (Fortyish Sandra Bullock looks spectacular, by the way, though Keanu was looking a bit out of shape and weathered.) I think their film chemistry is great, despite some critics who thought it fell flat. (I actually like Keanu’s understated acting.)
By the end of the film, it seems somewhat obvious how things will turn out, but that still doesn’t downplay the emotional impact of the ending. As the film wrapped up, the woman sitting next to me was bawling hysterically. I have to admit, I was a bit choked up myself.
The Lake House won’t be everyone’s thing, and is hardly going to please most sci-fi fans, but I enjoyed it. So even if you don’t think it’s your cup of tea, it might still be worth the rental.