The Lake House

"How do you hold on to someone you've never met?"
"What if you found the one you were meant for... but you lived 2 years apart?"

This was the premise of the movie, The Lake House.


I confessed that originally, I was extremely curious about the movie from the scientific angle. I wondered how they could explain away the time travel or time split bits. Certainly, I am no Albert Einstein nor Steven Hawkings but I like a good time travel theory as much as the next person.

BUT, if you go into the movie with the sole expectation to find a rational or at least a semi rational explanation for this interesting premise, you'd be sorely disappointed as no reference was made to that at all.

BUT, if you go into the movie and suspend logic for two hours, you just might be charmed by this tale of love and romance across time.

Based on the Korean movie Siworae (2000), the gist of the story is as follows ...

A lonely doctor, Kate (Sandra Bullock) who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its newest resident, a frustrated architect Alex (Keanu Reeves). But there's a catch! They are both living two years apart i.e. Alex lives in the year 2004 and Kate in the year 2006. Strangely enough, Kate and Alex had met in the past but it was not a memorable moment in her life then. However, the journey of self discovery, connection and romance that followed is one of the most touching ones that I have ever seen. And though at times, the movie can get a bit draggy, those moments were important in building the characters and carrying the plot to its finale.

Call me a sentimental fool but I couldn't quite get the movie out of my mind since I watched it last Saturday. I am not sure what has so drawn me to the movie. Perhaps it's the simple yet complex plot, or perhaps it is the chemistry between both the lead characters (although I often find Keanu's acting a little stiff), or perhaps it is the curiousity to discover how the lead characters manage to overcome the time issue, etc. It sure had me rooting for the two lead characters and for once, I was also rooting for a Hollywood ending.

But what makes the movie magical and memorable could also be drawn to one particular scene from the movie. In the words of a reviewer, Jon H Ochiai from Los Angeles, CA, ...

In a great scene from "The Lake House", Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) tells Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves) what she loves about Jane Austen's "Persuasion". What Kate loves about the book is that love can occur at the wrong time, and even when the characters wait it doesn't work out. Alex again inquires why it is Kate's favorite. Kate laughs. Magical chemistry. This is part of the brilliant charm of Director Alejandro Agresti's "The Lake House". It is a touching and funny love story about Kate's conceit that you wait for the right time and for the right one. Those familiar with the movie's trailer know that in the story by David Auburn (based on previous work by Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo) that time is the insurmountable obstacle posed to Alex and Kate.

Makes one wonders if there were moments in our past that we have missed. A missed romance? A missed opportunity? Perhaps I should also read the book mentioned in the movie; Persuasion by Jane Austen. I am rambling here. Hahaha ... I have my lapses. I am a sentimental fool.

Alrighty, I shall write and say no more.

Go for the movie and judge for yourself.

My favourite quotes from the movie:

[from trailer]
Kate: [voice over] Ridiculous. For argument's sake, what day is it there?
Alex: April 14th, 2004.
Kate: No. It's April 14th, 2006.
Alex: It's the same day two years apart.

[from trailer]
Kate: It's kind of a long distance relationship.

[from trailer]
Henry Wyler: Do you have a girlfriend?
Alex: Uh, you're going to think I'm crazy.

[from trailer]
Alex: She's more real to me than anything I've ever known.

[from trailer]
Kate: One man I can never meet. Him, I would like to give my whole heart to.

The Lake House Trailer