Don't overthink it.This is actually a pretty enjoyable romance, as long as you don't expect it to make a lot of sense. And really, who expects logic out of their romances, anyway?
The premise is wonderfully science fictiony: Alex lives in a glass-enclosed lake house in 2004 that Kate ends up renting after he's left. In 2006, when Kate's time there is over, she deposits a "Dear Next Tenant" note into the letterbox... which Alex mysteriously finds back in 2004! He's naturally confused by some of the details in the note, since it makes mention to dog prints on the deck that aren't there yet... until he sees them added by his own pet! He writes back, makes a deposit into the mailbox... and she immediately receives it! The time-separated pair fairly quickly come to terms with the magical/time-travel aspect of the mailbox and are soon passing messages back in forth in rapid fashion (voice-overs are used to spare us having to read handwritten notes). So far, I was pretty OK with suspending my disbelief on this angle, especially considering how likable the two leads are in their roles.
Where the story goes south - somewhat, at least - is in the measures that it goes to in order to keep the two young lovers physically separated for as long as possible. (Oh, and of course, the time travel doesn't ultimately work.) As even a child could recognize, the tale's probably over as soon as they finally meet up for real after which it's all Happily Ever After... So I get that the script writer doesn't want that to happen too quickly. But still. For example, Alex happens to meet (2 years younger) Kate in 2004, when he knows about their 'long distance relationship' but it hasn't started yet for her. He's already into her but she doesn't know him from Adam. This leads to a great scene in which he's able to use just a little of what he knows about her, but a lot of his own natural charm, to begin to win her heart. It's lovely how he woos her so quickly from a standing start. However, we're left to believe that this made such a non-impression on her that she never sought him out in the two years afterward, as well as failing to recognize him when he encountered him just prior to the mailbox magic starting up. Hmmmmm.
Similarly, Kate's fallen for Alex - separated by 2 years - in 2006, and yet does nothing to track him down in the present. "Hey Kate: there's this little thing called the Internet? Where you can find almost anybody? Oh, and Alex has a famous architect father, so that might make it even easier?" Now, it's possible that she feared that she'd find out that he'd died in the intervening 2 years, but all it would've taken is a single line of dialogue to make that evident. As written, it felt contrived that she didn't make more of an effort to find him than simply setting up a date for them to meet in 2006. And then when he didn't show for that rendezvous, she dumped him - by mailbox!
Which brings us to the time travel, or time paradox, aspect of the film. If you know anything about me, you know that I love time travel... and hate when it's done badly. This wasn't a butcher job by any stretch, but it didn't really pull it off, either. It seems that most of what happens, as a result of the back-and-forth communication between 2004 and 2006, doesn't change history. For example, Kate doesn't tell Alex to bet large on the Patriots repeating as SuperBowl Champions in early 2005 (if he had, he'd have made out quite nicely) or anything else equally-profitable. In fact, for awhile it doesn't appear that they can change what happened, as each new experience that Alex has - including meeting up with Kate in 2004 - seems in line with what had always transpired. And that's cool, in time travel terms. As a matter of fact, watch Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys if you want to see an excellent usage of that sort of time travel.
But that's clearly not where they were going, as one seemingly-trivial scene proves about halfway through. In it, Kate is outside her apartment building in the rain, trying to pick up some items that she'd dropped on the ground. "At the same moment" in the past, Alex is planting a tree in the dirt near where he knows her apartment building is going to be. Just like that, the 2-year-old tree appears in Kate's time, conveniently providing her shelter from the downpour. Aw, ain't that sweet! For all the silliness of that moment, though, there's a deeper implication: those two years that separate them are still fluid. This also sets up the climax of the movie, which stretches logic - even what passes for time traveling logic in The Lake House - beyond the breaking point. Which is too bad. I don't want to spoil the ending, but if you've seen it already, ask yourself: if Kate changes history the way that she does at the end, then why would she ever have done what she did at the start? Bit of a snake swallowing its own tail, wot?
Aside from those flaws, though... it's a good movie! The Lake House has its heart in the right place, with understated performances by Keanu Reeves (Alex) and Sandra Bollock (Kate). This is a much more mature and - dare I say, with time travel involved? - realistic relationship than anything the pair pulled off during Speed. I definitely cared what happened to them by the end of it all... even if parts of the plot drove me crazy!
Rating: ***
No comments:
Post a Comment