The Lake House Review (Sunday Business Post)

The
The Lake House
Dir: Alejandro Alesti
Cert PG

There is a conspiracy theory out there on the internet that claims Keanu Reeves is actually a robot who is slowly assimilating the mannerisms of human beings. Subscribers to such a theory will have much ammunition in this remake of the Korean film Il Mare by Hyun Seung Lee.
Reeves plays Alex, an architect who has just moved into his new home. On opening his post he reads a welcome note from the previous tenant Kate (Sandra Bullock). He replies and within a few pages to each other the pair realise that they are somehow living in separate times in the same house. So begins the ‘romance’.
This annoying film is largely made up of voice-overs between Bullock and Reeves as they narrate their letters to each across the divide of time. The lack of actual interaction and the fact that neither actor can lay claim to a pleasant reading voice leaves the mood particularly flat. Fair’s fair, Bullock is merely bland, where in his dramatic moments Reeves manages to be truly laughable helped along by a score inspired by daytime soap operas.
No chemistry exists between the two nor do they demonstrate anything to explain their infatuation with each other beyond him being an architect and her liking of pretentious books. The poorly developed sub-story about Reeves relationship with his workaholic father (Christopher Plummer) doesn’t carry through from the original and leads nowhere. On top of all that, the film is riddled with potholes.
Like every episode of the Twilight Zone, The Lake House is built around a massive ‘what if?’ In this case, what would you do if you started to get letters from someone who lived two years into the future? Well, most people would probably ask that person to look them up in the phonebook. Or supply a winning lotto number. Inexplicably Reeves considers neither; the behaviour of the protagonists just doesn’t ring true.
It would be a dull read picking out the rest of the many timeline inconsistencies here, but suffice it to say that suspension of disbelief is a delicate thing. The Lake House drops that delicate thing out of a 40 storey building, then drives over it with an articulated truck.

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