The Lake House

Much like 2002’s ‘Frequency’, this remake of the South Korean drama ‘The Sea’ (2000) uses communication through time as a device to both unite and divide its protagonists. But rather than father and son, these time-travellers are potential lovers. Doctor Sarah (Sandra Bullock) starts using the letterbox of her old Lake House to correspond with the new occupant, architect Alex (Keanu Reeves). But Alex insists that it’s 2004, not 2006, and soon an initially sceptical Sarah must accept the fact that they are two years apart in time. Striking up a friendship, the penpals become closer, and Alex faces the tricky prospect of romancing a woman who is two years into his future (planting trees outside her apartment and writing graffiti on a wall are just two of his little tricks).

Like the apparitions in ‘Ghost’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’, the time difference provides an entertaining and suspenseful obstacle to romance. Fans of the ‘Back to the Future’ series may also enjoy the encounters the pair have in Sarah’s past and Alex’s present, in which Alex attempts to alter the future while Sarah has no idea who he is. But the central concept is also this film’s greatest weakness. Plot holes abound: how can a successful architect be so hard to find in the internet age? Why can Sarah attach a book to one of her letters, but Alex not? And so on. ‘The Lake House’ demands a serious suspension of disbelief, but if you accept it as a romantic bit of nonsense, it has its pleasures.