The Lake House (2006)

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Directed by Alejandro Agresti.

Starring Sandra Bullock, Christopher Plummer, Keanu Reeves, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

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Two people develop an unusual relationship that bends the boundaries of time and place in this romantic fantasy. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is a doctor who lives in a beautiful home by a lake. Forced to move elsewhere, she requests that any correspondence that arrives at the lake house be passed on to her new address. To her surprise, she soon receives a romantic note from Alex Burnham (Keanu Reeves), an architect who lives in the cottage she once called home. However, a look at the postmark on the letter reveals that he lived at the home two years before she did, and that somehow they've come in contact with one another through a space in time. A remake of Lee Hyun-seung's acclaimed Korean romance Il Mare (aka Siworae), The Lake House was the first American production from Argentinean filmmaker Alejandro Agresti; the supporting cast includes Christopher Plummer, Dylan Walsh, and Lynn Collins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

The Lake House (2006)
by JJ79 in JJ79 Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"Tell me if this sounds at all familiar: a down-on-her-luck doctor falls for a manual labor guy, only to have their romance interrupted by some bizarre twists. "The Lake House" is a movie we´ve all seen many times before and, at the same time, it´s also a movie we´ve never seen prior. When Alex (Keanu Reeves) moves into a gorgeous house on a lake (hence the name of the movie, "The Lake House"), he begins to correspond with Kate (Sandra Bullock), a doctor who has just moved from the home. She has a simple request, at first: please forward her mail to a new address in Chicago if any should get through the Post Office. He agrees to and, through their letters, the two learn a very eerie truth: they are living roughly two years apart from each other; she is in the year 2006 and he in 2004. In the course of their correspondence, they slowly learn they have been a part of each other´s lives for quite some time, from kissing at her birthday party to the aforementi ... " [More]

A Prairie Home Companion - The ...
by MovieBabe in MovieBabe Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"By Tricia Olszewski A Prairie Home Companion was created for—and by—the kind of people who still appreciate the olde-fashioned longing in lyrics such as “Come and sit by my side if you love me/Do not hasten to bid me adieu.” That couplet, from trad-folk number “Red River Valley,” closes the film, a reflection on nostalgia and the end of things beloved written by Garrison Keillor and directed by Robert Altman. From the former, you’d expect as much. From the latter, you have to wonder: Is this a part of the American experience he really needs to be bothering with? Based on Keillor’s identically titled and, at 31 years, still-running NPR program, the loose narrative involves the final episode of a modern-day radio variety show, touching on soured love affairs and unspooling a significant subplot about death. It’s impossible not to consider that this may be the 81-year-old Altman’s swan song, as well—Paul Thomas Anders ... " [More]

Built on Sand
by dj4our in dj4our Blog

lost interest.

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"THE LAKE HOUSE *PG for some language and a disturbing image.1 hr. 38 min.written by: David Auburn (screenplay), Jina Yeoh & Eun-Jeong Kimproduced by: Doug Davison & Roy Leedirected by: Alejandro AgrestiTake two mediocre actors who rarely take risks anymore and give them a lame remake script and see if the sparks fly. Well, they don't fly, they don't even spark. You gotta be an obsessive fan of both Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves to like this film, let alone stay awake through it. Someone thought that because these two were in 1994's ";Speed" that they had chemistry. Wrong! If ya can't guess the ending of this film in the first 15 minutes than ya must have been distracted by the paint chips peeling off yer wall. Ya just can't find an intelligent time-spanning romance anymore. This movie made me long for Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. It's too bad this is a remake of the Korean film 2000's "Il Mare" cuz it woulda been better if this tepid romance h ... " [More]

Cute
by gothere in You should go there

is neutral about it.

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"I turned this movie on as background noise for email and found it surprisingly pleasant. Beside being the obvious romance clichés, The Lake House was relatively quiet and highlighted vaguely nostalgic music that was comforting. Or at least allowed me to follow along while checking email – sort of. The plot had some strange, unexplainable twists any time-bending fiction requires. Still, it was cute, and if you're in the mood for a quiet, romantic film with a 60s-esque soundtrack, give it a try. " [More]

love does defeats time...
by forrest_gump in forrest_gump Blog

liked it.

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"how much can love do? can it defeat time?can it bring back your dearest one? the lake house depicts this fact..it is first a love story than a science fiction(lol) When Chicago doctor Kate Forster (Bullock) vacates the spectacular lake house she's been renting for a few months, she leaves the next tenant a welcome note. When architect Alex Wyler (Reeves) arrives at the lake house, he finds the note left by Kate. The odd thing, however, is the date on the letter: it's 2006. For Alex, 2004 has just begun and the house has been abandoned for years. He thinks it's a practical joke, and he leaves the "trespasser" a note. When Kate, needing a brief break from the stress in Chicago, returns to the lake house, she finds the note, and she writes back.Soon, they realize that they exist in two different times, exactly two years apart. Their only connection with each other is the magical mailbox and the letters they leave for each other. Through their letters, they start to get to ... " [More]

Movie Marathon-The Lake House
by spoutgirl in spoutgirl Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"What a wonderfuly weird, crazy, lovely, amazingly well done movie. I didn't expect much from this going into it, but I am just so pleasantly suprised by how much I liked it. I am left wondering, if you give time a chance, will it bring you the person you were meant to spend the rest of your life with? Realizing that there is no way that this situation could ever be possible, I think that the real story behind it is that if you love someone, in time fate will bring you together, again. Overall Score: 5 Stars (i.e. I will be adding this to my DVD collection) " [More]

Puzzling But Satisfying
by pippin06 in Reel Thoughts

is neutral about it.

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"See the Fantasy group for the most details. Considering the thought I'm putting into it, I sure am glad there is a happy ending to this movie. But I'm still confused. Why does this magic thing even start working? I feel like major plot points were neglected and left too much to the viewers' interpretation. The film is based on a book; I wonder if the book explained everything? The rating: I'm giving it a 7 out of 10. The overall work of the film is shaky (it's confusing, it's disjointed, it's vague, it leaves too much to the imagination) but I felt entertained/warm-hearted about the movie. It's better than a 6 (cute) because of the satisfying ending and the fact that the film was not cheesy, but I can't quite give it an 8 because I'm still trying to understand the story; I couldn't suspend my disbelief long enough to forget that in no way was this romance explained or this magical mailbox explained. It's kind of creepy, too, if you think about it, getting random letters fr ... " [More]

THE LAKE HOUSE - THOUGHTS UPON ...
by pippin06 in The Imagination of Fantasy

is neutral about it.

"The word of mouth/buzz around this movie was that it was good - yes, even though Keanu is in it. So, friends and I went to see it. Hey, he did a fine job. I think he has the ability to act, despite what some people think; he just doesn't use it as often as one would like. That's not why I'm posting, though. I was undecided as to whether this could truly be called a fantasy, but, after having seen it, I would say it's most definitely fantasy and a puzzling one at that. I'm still thinking about it, which is a good sign. I just don't know what it is I think, and that's not such a good sign. The basic plot is that Sandra Bullock's character, Kate, moves from a lake house that apparently Keanu Reeve's character (whose name I don't remember) lived in two years previously, and, magically, they are able to communicate across this two year divide when Keanu finds a letter that Sandra left for the new tenant/owner. Except SB wrote it in 2006 while he finds it in 2004. This house, fu ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

is neutral about it.

Love stories seem to always be about finding the right love at the wrong time. The Lake House takes that to heart by having the protagonists fall in love with each other even though they live in different times. Well, actually they do live at the same time, and even in the same place, only two years apart from each other. They exchange letters through a magic mailbox that allows the letters they exchange to transcend time. For a film with this fantastical a concept to work, the filmmakers need to figure out a couple of aspects. First, you either have to play the fantasy element to the hilt, leaving any semblance of reality, or you have to ground the film in a very familiar world and sprinkle just enough magical realism over it all that the audience buys in to the conceit. Director Alejandro Agresti opts mostly for the former, shooting everything with a gauzy beauty, and allowing the leads, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, to look beautiful even when the characters feel miserable. One of the other hurdles that the screenplay clears is figuring out how to get the two characters to share the screen even though their individual stories transpire in different timelines. Luckily, the best scene of the movie brings the two of them face to face right in the middle of the film, and the actors smartly underplay the scene. Reeves and Bullock do have excellent chemistry together, her all-American girl-next-door appeal grounds his physical beauty, and when the two do get to be in the same place at the same time the film fulfills its goals, even if the occasionally sluggish setup might not be as gripping. The Lake House does not have the authority to make a viewer suspend disbelief, but anyone willing to shut that off on their own will enjoy it. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Tags: love , keanu , reeves , romance , time
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