movies: the lake house

Originally we'd intended to go and see Hoodwinked tonight... but the more I saw of the animation in all the commercials advertising it, the less enthusiastic I became about it... so instead we went to see The Lake House... even though I'd heard some less than stellar reports.

Turns out they were wrong...

Sure, its not the best plot in the world, and Ma actually worked out what was going to happen towards the end of the movie while we were still about ten minutes into the thing... but it was sweet and kind of moving.

Of course it was a little bit ruined by the four monumentally rude people sitting behind us... two of whom kept talking until first Ma, then I told them, in very quick succession, to be quiet... then another one of them kept getting up and leaving and then coming back... then one of the talker's mobile went off right during a pivotal emotional (and, might I add SILENT) scene towards the end of the movie... grrrr... just stay home and watch your goddamn teevee next time people... please!

Anyway... I'm ever so slightly partial to both Keanu and Sandra (Keanu moreso, naturally), and it was nice to see them together again... without being on a bus. There is always something a little sad and melancholy about Sandra, no matter what movie she's in, and it actually worked well for her here. And Keanu just seems to feel more solid and grounded as time goes on... he's just THERE... in his skin... doin' his thing. It works for him. Actually I think neither of them really had to stretch themselves for these roles. And I don't mean that in a bad way... both characters just seemed very real.

Sure, for the movie to work, you have to suspend disbelieve about the whole "time travelling mail box" thing... but, c'mon... I like stuff like that anyway (I've seen far too much Star Trek for any kind of time travel to really phase me)... so, really, I had no problem with that. It did bug me a tiny bit a couple of times where the two characters were essentially having a conversation across time instead of communicating the way you would if you were writing letters like that... but then there is only so much they could do with that in a movie, as opposed to say a book (and I actually wonder if the movie was based on a book... I know it was a remake of the Korean film, Siworae... but the concept just seems that it would lend itself to a book very easily). Either that, or the whole movie would be the two of them sitting next to the mailbox trading letters.

And I have to say that while the lake house itself was essentially a third character in the movie, I actually didn't like it... the first couple of full looks at it we got, I just though "That is one ugly-ass, impractical house!"... and my opinion didn't improve much during the course of the movie. I did come to understand why it looked the way it did... I still thought it was ugly, but at least it made sense.

My only advise to anyone seeing the movie is not to try and over analyse the temporal mechanics (could I be a bigger nerd) of how the end of the movie works... you'll do your head in... just accept it as presented and leave it at that.

yani's rating: 3 temporal mailboxes out of 5