The Lake House

Keanu Reeves
Sandra Bullock
Dylan Walsh

Directed by: Alejandro Agretsi

In a reunion film for Bullock and Reeves, The Lake House is the story of a young architect (Reeves) who moves into his father’s lake house where he receives correspondence from its previous tenant (Bullock). After the pair exchange letters back and forth a few times, they begin to realize that they are talking to each other from the same place years apart.

While the plot of the film sounds completely convoluted and a little out of the norm for your average “romance” film, don’t let the premise scare you away. You will be missing a really good film. Most of the film is told in voice over while one is responding to the other’s letters. While that could get dull and repetitive, director Alejandro Agretsi uses a wonderful tool to pull it off: a sort of two-person soliloquy. While both characters are essentially alone, they are speaking and responding as if they are together. This method only enhances key scenes in the film when both characters start to feel more and more alone. A film told simultaneously in multiple times can get a little confusing, but the director is kind enough to give us enough visual clues from the characters so that if you do get lost it is only for a moment. The director does a very good job of keeping all of the pieces of the film together without getting away from the average audience

While initially Keanu Reeves comes across as Theodore S. Logan from his days in
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, he eventually finds his way and falls into the leading man role. Since they spend most of the film apart, Keanu does not have to act the romantic part too much. There were actually scenes in the film where his clumsy, almost boyish acting style seemed completely appropriate for the situation. There is a scene in the film where they are sitting on a porch at her birthday party that will end up in my top five favorite all time romantic scenes almost exclusively because of the way he plays off of her. There really is no problem with chemistry in the film.

I highly recommend The Lake House. You really have no reason to be afraid of Keanu Reeves in a serious role. While the plot of the film sounds a bit on the bizarre side, works remarkably well and is actually a very refreshing change to the seemingly tireless “boy meets girl, boy falls in love than loses girl” formula.
 

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