Starring: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Shohreh Aghdashloo
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Rated: PG
TIME travel romances make no logical sense (nor scientific sense) but, of course, that is not the point. Romantics enjoy what if …? scenarios.
What if a man moved into a house by a lake and found a note in his letterbox from the previous tenant asking him to forward her mail?
No problem there. But, if it emerges that he is living in 2004 and she in 2006 and they cannot see each other but can see the letterbox opening and shutting as they begin to correspond with each other, and enjoy reading the letters which turn into love letters …?
Well, that is what we have in The Lake House, plus the charm of the stars.
Sandra Bullock is a melancholic doctor waiting for something to happen in her life besides her dedication to her work.
Jane Austen’s Persuasion features in the dialogue with its inopportune meeting between the romantic couple and their having to wait for the right time to meet again, a key to this story.
Keanu Reeves, at his most charming (you would never dream that this nice architect could ever have been in The Matrix or Constantine), helps us believe in this unbelievable love story.
Having turned 40, the two stars are very comfortable in their roles and their characters. Twelve years ago they worked together in a high adrenalin way in Speed.
I am not sure I can explain the finale in terms of dates – well it is Valentine’s Day – or, rather, what year it is.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter. It offers smiles, but tears as well.
Direction, which brings the best out of its stars and immerses us in emotions with some tenderness without wallowing in it, is by noted Argentinian director Alejandro Agresti.
