The Lake House Reviewed: An Elegant Agresti Achievement
Flaws in editing and some irregularities in acting will probably prevent The Lake House from being an Academy Award contender, but, nonetheless, this movie stays with you and is memorable in its overall excellence, beauty and tenderness, directed with a delicate and sensitive hand by Argentinian film maker Alejandro Agresti.
The Lake House is a story of a woman, a man, a house by the lake and connectedness. The woman, Kate (Sandra Bullock), is a doctor taking on her first full-fledged job at a hospital in Chicago. In order to make this transition, she must leave the fabulous lake house she has been renting near the community hospital where she did her residency. At her departure, another tenant moves in, Alex by name (Keanu Reeves).
Kate and Alex find themselves in communication via a note she leaves addressing issues such as misdirected mail and paw prints. Alex Wyler is an architect and the son of a famous architect (Christopher Plummer) with whom he is not on the best of terms. Alex is the pivotal element in the screenplay by Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof), who is writing in company with Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo. It is through Alex that we discover the time glitch across which Kate and he communicate. Further, it is through Alex’s relationship with his father that we understand the idea of connectedness which is central to The Lake House.
The screenplay authentically reveals lives, ideas, feelings, quests for self understanding and quests for understanding of the world we are all rather unceremoniously deposited in. This is a complex screenplay exploring complex ideas, concepts and issues. Generally, the screenplay tells the tale of Kate and Alex with finesse and captivating sophistication of language and originality of devise. Once or twice, however, it seems to toy with the audience in seemingly deliberately calling up Bullock’s past roles (was that the screenplay or was that Bullock’s own mistaken choice?). For instance, Bullock, as Lucy Kelson in Two Weeks Notice and again as Kate Forster in The Lake House, delivers the atypical line, “You….” The only difference being that the earlier instance is in a comedy, while the more recent instance is in a drama.
It is difficult sometimes to separate weakness in screenplay from weakness in editing. And in The Lake House we have just this sort of a problem in an early part of the film. At one point, Bullock says, “as surely as I know the year is 2006,” cluing us into the time differences which are integral to the story. This is a necessary step, but it comes rather abruptly and with little or no logical reason for the pronouncement. In other words, it stands out to the viewers attention, drawing them out of the fantasy, which is always a counterproductive effect in a film. Was it that the screenplay just got lazy here? Or did the editor get overzealous in the interest of that all-powerful demigod, “Pace,” and clip out the few minutes that would have added more suspense to the realization of time-warp, as well as adding more logical rationale to a proclamation of the year, “2006.”
As I said, though, in the overall impact, The Lake House is a beautifully done and touching film, showing real human emotion and uncertainty in an artistically contrived un-reality used to picture a poignant reality: waiting for the love that may have passed you by forever.
The entire ensemble put in laudable performances, especially, of course, Sandra Bullock (except for the handful of places where she toys with us) and Keanu Reeves, but also Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Mona Lisa Smile) as younger brother Henry Wyler, who is also an architect, and the stunningly beautiful 54-year old Iranian, Shohreh Aghdashloo, as Dr. Anna Klyczynski. Although, it must be said that Moss-Bachrach did such a believable job on being the nervous younger brother, with two giant shadows to live under, that I began to wonder if it was the nervous younger brother or the nervous young actor whom I was watching. My question was answered in Moss-Bachrach’s favor in the last scenes where Henry Wyler appears with all the cool, collected, controlled confidence his role as a successful Chicago architect requires.
Altogether, the generally excellent acting of the ensemble produces a genuine feeling from the characters of vulnerability, disappointment and waiting. Some of the thematic motifs – trees growing, connectedness, light – provide the window of understanding through which these vulnerable, waiting ones must look for perspective and insight, as is so aptly suggested by the theme song “This Never Happened Before” by the incomparable Paul McCartney.
I’ll want to watch The Lake House again when it is released on DVD – if for no other reason than to figure out Jack, the dog: Is she (yes, she) some sort of psychic or outer-worldly escort dog? Truthfully, there will actually be many reasons to watch The Lake House again, including the generally (but not always) superlative acting. But because of the inadequacies and irregularities that I’ve pointed out, which will most likely prevent a serious Academy Award consideration, I give The Lake House only Four and a Half Stars.
