Movie Talk: The Lake House

[Warning: Mild Spoilers!]

My hubby and I just finished watching The Lake House featuring the reteaming of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. I've always thought of Keanu Reeves in action/thriller roles, but I loved him in this movie. Sandra Bullock is raw and vulnerable in this movie (a litttle reminiscent of her character in Hope Floats).

One of the reviews on the DVD cover says it's "A rare and unique love story". Okay, maybe not so unique (I'm old enough to remember Christopher Reeves in Somewhere In Time), but a love story this definitely is.

Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock) and Alex Wyler (Reeves) live in the same house, but two years apart; him in 2004 and her in 2006. Through a time-bending mailbox, the two strike up a relationship via letters. This is the romance of the movie for me - falling in love on paper.

There's something about composition meant to be read rather than heard. Face to face, we are restrained by our inhibition, attempts to read the other person's face, inability to find the right words at the right time, perhaps fear of response, etc. But when writing, it's just you, the pen and the paper (or in this case - me, the keyboard and computer screen) without time constraints. It's a form of communication that can generate intimacy between strangers much sooner than spoken words. That's one of the reasons this movie resonated with me. I fully accepted the premise of falling in love by letters, by the sharing of thoughts, dreams, hopes, fears and the like.

Another reason I loved this movie is as Alex's feelings for Kate grow, he is prompted to do things - like leave a message on a building in 2004 that she will see in 2006. I love the depiction of a man doing loving acts , of old-fashioned wooing.

There's an element of fate in this movie. A "meant-to-be" that all romantics hold dear. Rent The Lake House. It's a grown-up's fairytale.