The Lake House [Blu-ray]

Keanu Reeves Director: Alejandro Agresti, Dylan Walsh, Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock Alejandro Agresti

Overview

Two people develop an unusual relationship that bends the boundaries of time and place in this romantic fantasy. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is a doctor who lives in a beautiful home by a lake. Forced to move elsewhere, she requests that any correspondence that arrives at the lake house be passed on to her new address. To her surprise, she soon receives a romantic note from Alex Burnham (Keanu Reeves), an architect who lives in the cottage she once called home. However, a look at the postmark on the letter reveals that he lived at the home two years before she did, and that somehow they've come in contact with one another through a space in time. A remake of Lee Hyun-seung's acclaimed Korean romance Il Mare (aka Siworae), The Lake House was the first American production from Argentinean filmmaker Alejandro Agresti; the supporting cast includes Christopher Plummer, Dylan Walsh, and Lynn Collins.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/26/2006
UPC:	0012569829640
Original Release:	2006
Rating:	PG
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	18,826

Special Features

Additional scenes and outtakes; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Keanu Reeves	Alex Wyler
Sandra Bullock	Dr. Kate Forster
Shohreh Aghdashloo	Dr. Anna Klyczynski
Dylan Walsh	Morgan
Christopher Plummer	Simon Wyler
Willeke van Ammelrooy	Kate's Mother
Ebon Moss-Bachrach	Henry Wyler
Lynn Collins	Mona
India Neilan	Hostess
Mike Bacarella	Mulhern
Scott Elias	Doug
Lori Ann Gerdisch	ICU Nurse
Michael Andrew Gorman	Bartender,Cove Bartender
Cynthia Kaye McWilliams	Vanessa
Kevin Brennan	Waiter,Kellner
Frank Caeti	Cove Patron
Jennifer Kern	Nurse
Nora Newbrough	Marjorie
Mia Park	Receptionist
Peggy Roeder	Attendant
Jason Wells	Costello
Jacqueline Williams	Madhvi Patel
Jason Abustan	Ivy League Jr. Architect
Nathan Adloff	Restaurant Patron
Aliyah Carr	Girl Patient
Jennifer Clark	Nurse Practitioner
Patricia E. Harrington	Businesswoman
Joy Kocay	Party Goer
Ernie Lang	Restaurant Patron
Alexandra LoRusso	Messenger
Marissa Newton	Hostess No. 2
January Scarpino	Pediatrician
Andrea N. Winters	Waitress
Alan Bovinett	Restaurant Patron
Jason Frederick	Ice Skater
Drama	Actor
Rachel Portman	Composer
Paul M. van Brugge	Composer

Technical Credits

Roy Lee

David Auburn

Alejandro Agresti	Director
Roy Lee	Producer,Screenwriter
Doug Davison	Producer
David Auburn	Screenwriter
Jason Piccioni	Special Effects
Bruce Berman	Executive Producer,Producer
Mary McLaglen	Executive Producer,Producer
Erwin Stoff	Executive Producer,Producer
Sonny Mallhi	Producer
Ron Bartlett	Sound Effects
Paul Timothy Carden	Sound Effects
Jed M. Dodge	Sound Effects
Rickley W. Dumm	Sound Effects
Hal Gaba	Executive Producer
Dylan Walsh	Director
Keanu Reeves	Director
Sandra Bullock	Director
Dana Goldberg	Producer
Lori J. Nelson	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Love stories seem to always be about finding the right love at the wrong time. The Lake House takes that to heart by having the protagonists fall in love with each other even though they live in different times. Well, actually they do live at the same time, and even in the same place, only two years apart from each other. They exchange letters through a magic mailbox that allows the letters they exchange to transcend time. For a film with this fantastical a concept to work, the filmmakers need to figure out a couple of aspects. First, you either have to play the fantasy element to the hilt, leaving any semblance of reality, or you have to ground the film in a very familiar world and sprinkle just enough magical realism over it all that the audience buys in to the conceit. Director Alejandro Agresti opts mostly for the former, shooting everything with a gauzy beauty, and allowing the leads, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, to look beautiful even when the characters feel miserable. One of the other hurdles that the screenplay clears is figuring out how to get the two characters to share the screen even though their individual stories transpire in different timelines. Luckily, the best scene of the movie brings the two of them face to face right in the middle of the film, and the actors smartly underplay the scene. Reeves and Bullock do have excellent chemistry together, her all-American girl-next-door appeal grounds his physical beauty, and when the two do get to be in the same place at the same time the film fulfills its goals, even if the occasionally sluggish setup might not be as gripping. The Lake House does not have the authority to make a viewer suspend disbelief, but anyone willing to shut that off on their own will enjoy it.