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The Lake House: Timeless
Chemistry Reviewed by Graham H.
Moes Rating: B+ A funny thing happened on the way to The Fast and the Furious 3. I took a wrong turn and ended up at a screening of The Lake House. That’s not a joke. I actually read the press invitation wrong, and instead of an evening of eXtreme street racing with the hip-hip crowd, I found myself at a Keanu Reeves chick-flick romance surrounded by a crowd, well, not so fast or furious. Having just finished the first two movies in the muscle-car Fast/Furious trilogy for the express purpose of reaming the third with credibility, I’m pleased to report I traded up. Chick-flick or no, I'm happy to admit The Lake House captivated — due largely to its intriguing premise: two people, living in separate timeframes two years apart, become pen-pal soul mates through letters left in a mailbox at the lake house where each once lived. It’s a little bit Ghost, a little bit Return to Me, and a lotta bit Sleepless in Seattle. Might as well toss Back to the Future in there too, for good measure. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock — last seen both fast and furious together on-screen in Speed — are the time-crossed lovers seemingly fated never to meet. Reeves is often lampooned as a clunky, wooden actor in the grand Reeves tradition of Steve Reeves, Christopher Reeves, and Al Gore Reeves. But as he did in A Walk in the Clouds, the artist formerly known as Neo turns in a soulful, earnest performance that supplies what the role demands, even if it does little to counter his reputation for mechanical line delivery.
Somewhere along the way though, in a string of grittier and more self-deprecating roles in films like 28 Days and Miss Congeniality, the girl-next-door appeal was obscured. LakeHouse proves she’s still got it, and despite the time lost, she’s actually lovelier than ever. Together too, Bullock and Reeves still have a distinct chemistry after 12 years. Regardless of your opinion of Keanu’s acting chops, or chick flicks in general, it’s hard to root against these two finding a way to bridge the romantic time/space continuum to live happily ever after. The film’s one shortcoming may be its relentless sobriety. This is a foreign film remake, which maybe explains the script’s preoccupation with how much their predicament sucks. It’s not without laughs, but they seem fewer and farther between than they are. (Still, the same overwrought approach worked recently for The Notebook, as it did Bullock’s own tonal equivalent Hope Floats some years ago.) Cynics may also roll their eyes at the film’s handling of the “invisible mailman” delivery scenes, while logical minds will see more than one fairly simple way to fix the problem; but judging from audience reaction, the nitpickers will not prevail. Back to The Fast and the Furious 3.… For the record, I hated the original but enjoyed the second a lot. I’ll likely split the difference and catch the third on TV. Yet I’m already planning to take my wife on a date to see The Lake House this weekend. Proving, I guess, that wrong turns can often take you where you’d rather be after all. |
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