The Lake House

Yes, there is a bit of a hopeless romantic inside me. It usually shows itself in the movies I will watch. Overall it was a good movie. It had a few moments that didn't work but, otherwise if you can let yourself go enough to believe in the story it's good. If you can't let yourself go in that way you won't enjoy this movie at all.

Sandra and Keanu were both strong. I would have liked to see Sandra get a little more emotional variation but, she did get a couple of strong moments so it was okay. Keanu's character was a little more flat. Not flat in a bad way just that is character was on the same emotional plain the whole time. There's a lot of voice over in the movie and luckily both Keanu and Sandra have the ability to portray so much with just their voices.

The way the director put the film together was very nice. I really like the parts where they were shown to be in the same place and it was as if they were talking to each other but they were in different times so they really weren't. Going in I was worried about how the movie would work if they were never on screen together but they solved that problem brilliantly.

There was one weak part in the casting and that was Dylan Walsh as Sandra's on-again-off-again boyfriend. He is so dull on Nip/Tuck I don't know how he got in this movie. He wasn't even in it that much but most of the time he was in it he was with Sandra and it was just a miss cast all the way.


Spoiler Alert:


The one real flaw in the story was that they gave away a key story point to early in the movie. When Kate Sandra) is having lunch with her mom and a man is hit by a bus it is blatently obvious to the audience that it is Alex (Keanu). Unfortunately this ruins a moment later in the movie. As a result you also spend to much of the movie wondering when Kate is going to figure it out.

That early scene completely destroys the moment later in the movie when they are to finally meet at a restaurant. You know that he's not going to show up so it takes away all the emotional empact of the movie. Even Sandra can't save a moment that the audience knows is coming ten minutes in.

The other problem with it is that she should have known the minute she found out Alex's full name that he was the man killed that day. She's a doctor for crying out loud she would have found out the name of the man she couldn't save.

I did like the part though that he orchastrated for them to meet without her knowing it by meeting her at her surprise birthday party. That was a really great portion of the movie.



I paid full price for the movie and it was totally worth it for me. Anyone with a strong since of romance (hopeless or not) especially for whimsical romance will enjoy this movie and won't feel gypt by paying full price. Otherwise you're probably better off just waiting for video.