[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyywIEg0vrI&feature=related[/pro-player]
2006. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) moves out of the lake house she has been living in. She moves back to the city and writes a note to the next owner, mentioning that there were paw prints before she moved in and there was a box in the attic- so he will know they are not her doing.
2004. Architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves) moves into the lake house. The house has been empty for years so Alex is surprised to find a letter in the mail box from the previous owner, Kate Forster. And there are no paw prints to speak of. So Alex responds by saying that she might be mistaken since no one lived there before him.
2006. Now, Kate is a little annoyed. Plus Alex has dated his letter 2004. When they start writing to each other, each determined to prove the other wrong, weird things start happening. For one, the paw prints are formed by a dog just as Alex is working outside. Second, anything Kate says has happened that winter happens.
As far-fetched and impossible as it might seem – through some sort of time lapse or whatever – they are corresponding through the same mailbox. The minute one puts the letter in, the other picks it up. Yet in time, there are 2 years apart. So Alex and Kate decide to make the most of this strange occurrence and write in detail. They get to know each other and share bits from their lives. They make little but truly meaningful gestures for each other that other doesn’t have due to their own time. Through the letters, they start to fall in love. They both know it is ridiculous and they how no idea how on earth this is happening but the connection and emotions they share are unique and intense.
At one point, Kate asks Alex to do a favor for her. She has forgotten her much cherished Persuasion copy (a novel by Jane Austen) at the train station two years ago. Alex goes to pick it up and sees Kate for the first time- though Kate two years ago is already on the train and doesn’t know him.
He promises to give it to her. And through a chance encounter, he meets Kate’s then boyfriend and is invited to her birthday party. Kate and Alex get to meet face to face- of course he can’t explain Kate who he is. But yet in those few minutes, they connect. Kate of 2006, she remembers him. She remembers the stranger she has kissed two years ago and hasn’t seen again.
So in that moment lost in the movie, you do believe in “soul mates”, “the one”, “meant to be” and fate – all the cliché concepts that we tend to believe in our romantic/emotional moments and tend to reject when we are feeling cynical. Because there in a beautiful story, you realize the two people corresponding and ceasing to be strangers with their letters, were not really strangers to begin with. They were two people who met at the wrong time, at the wrong place – hence the references to the novel Persuasion (don’t worry, Kate fills you in on that, no need to have read the book- though I’m seriously tempted to). So realizing he doesn’t want to miss the opportunity, they decide to meet for real. But then again, time difference or not, life is complicated…
If you have seen the movie, please comment and I’ll be happy to get into all the beautiful details of this heart-warming and sincere film. Yes, you might be tempted to find logical flaws. Don’t try. I mean the movie does have the surreal element in the first place and since this is simply romance and doesn’t include any other “fantastic” elements, let it go. You either will enjoy the story, the acting, the setting, or you won’t. I love both Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I am not that big of a fan of Sweet November so don’t accuse me of loving everything with Keanu in it. I don’t (Feeling Minnesota was average and I am not a Matrix saga fan- although I admire its effects). Somehow, Lake House isn’t cheesy or sappy or stupid. It is emotional, intense, sincere and sweet. I actually do think Keanu Reeves is a good actor. And no – I don’t believe the point of the movie is possible in real life. That “fate” helps you in getting together with that special person? That love can exist between a man and a woman in its true form? And moreover “the one” can look like Keanu Reeves? Please, no. But I want to believe it. And for the duration of 99 minutes, I believe it. With all my heart. So can you.
P.S: For a bittersweet reality shot, watch 500 Days of Summer. Lake House involves no comedy and is less original (it is based on a foreign film). But to see a love story, don’t miss this. IMDB rating: 6.8. voted by over 30,000. See? I told you cynicism gets on hold with this flick.
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