The Lake House (film)

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The Lake House
Original Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Alejandro Agresti
Produced by	Sonny Mallhi
Written by	David Auburn
Starring	Keanu Reeves Sandra Bullock
Music by	Rachel Portman Paul McCartney
Editing by	Alejandro Brodersohn
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	US June 16, 2006
Running time	US 105 min
Language	English
Budget	US $40 million

Ratings
Argentina:	13
Brazil:	Livre
Canada (Brit.Col):	G
Germany:	o.Al.
Hong Kong:	I
Ireland:	PG
Malaysia:	U
Philippines:	G
Singapore:	PG
Sweden:	Btl
United Kingdom:	PG
United States:	PG

The Lake House is a 2006 romantic drama film remake of the Korean motion picture Il Mare (2000).

It was written by David Auburn and directed by Alejandro Agresti and stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as Alex Wyler and Kate Forster, as an architect and a doctor living in 2004 and 2006 respectively. It also reunites Reeves and Bullock for the first time since Speed in 1994.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Chronological order of events 2 Trivia 3 Cast 4 Soundtrack 4.1 Songs appearing in the film, but not on the soundtrack 4.2 Songs associated with the film, but not in the film or on the soundtrack 5 Box office 6 Critical reception 7 Interviews 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie centers around lonely Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) who, on a winter morning in 2006, reluctantly leaves the beautiful lake house where she has been living for a job in a Chicago hospital. On her way to Chicago, she leaves a note for the lake house's new tenant asking him to kindly forward her mail and telling him about the paw prints by the front door and the box in the attic.

However, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), the new tenant, sees a different lake house, one which was neglected, dirty, and there were certainly no paw prints. He disregards Kate's letter until a few days later; he is painting the walkway to the house and a stray dog runs across the fresh paint leaving paw prints where Kate said they would be. He writes back to Kate, only to discover that they are separated in time by two years, with Alex living in 2004 and Kate living in 2006 (the year the film was released). In her second letter to Alex, Kate writes: "Oh, by the way it is 2006. Has been all year, ask anyone." Kate mentions she is presently [in 2006] living at 1620 North Racine in Chicago. Alex goes to that address [in 2004], with the intention of personally delivering a letter to her at her apartment, and discovers that an unfinished construction site exists at 1620 North Racine. Alex estimates that the site will not be finished for another 18 months.

As Kate and Alex continue to correspond through the mailbox, they find themselves falling in love. Because Kate is in the future, she can tell Alex where to look for her in 2004 in places she has been. On one occasion, she asks Alex to bring her back something important (a gift from her father; her favorite novel by Jane Austen called Persuasion), which she left two years ago during a train station meeting with her then-beau. Alex goes to the station and finds the item and sees Kate with long hair. Even though he has the item, he does not place it in the mailbox to return it to her. Instead, he says that he will return it to her personally, "one way or the other."

By the same dog that put prints on the walkway, Alex and his female suitor Mona, whom he is uninterested in, meet Kate's boyfriend Morgan and are both invited to attend her birthday party. At the party, Kate is frustrated with Morgan's sincere but smothering ways. She wanders outside, where Alex is sitting, attempting to determine how to let this earlier version of Kate know that her "letter paramour" is here in person. Kate does not know who Alex is, as their relationship is in her future. However, the two share a dance and a romantic moment, but it is interrupted by Morgan and Mona.

Determined to bridge the distance between them at last and unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary connection, they tempt fate by arranging to meet. After a failed attempt at a date meeting at Il Mare, a fancy restaurant (an homage to the original Korean motion picture), in 2006, Kate retreats, believing she will never have happiness. She urges Alex to move on.

[edit] Chronological order of events

2004

• Alex parks his pickup truck, and walks up to the edge of the parking lot in front of the lake house. Alex has just bought the lake house.
• Alex's girl friend Mona talks to Alex at his construction site. Mona has just learned that Alex has bought the lake house.
• Alex returns to the lake house after dark, and finds the flag up on his rural mailbox. Although this scene appears to take place in 2004, Alex finds a letter in the mailbox that was placed there in 2006 by a woman named Kate Forster.
• In the letter, Kate Forster claims to have previously lived at the lake house, and she apologizes for the paw prints at the front door. Kate says they were there when she moved in.
• Alex checks for paw prints at the front door but there are none to be seen. Alex is confused by the letter, since he has just bought the lake house, and it had been abandoned for several years when he bought it.
• At a later time, Alex is painting the handrails on the bridge leading to the front door, when a stray dog appears out of nowhere and walks through a tray of paint, creating paint paw prints that lead up to the front door of the lake house.
• Alex replies to Kate's letter with one of his own. Alex places the letter in the lake house mailbox, after which he places the flag up on the mailbox.
• Alex informs his brother Henry that he has bought a lake house, which he defines as "a dump that has been abandoned for years".
• Alex tells Henry "I even got a dog. He just showed up at the house from out on nowhere." (This stray dog was later given to Kate, who named it "Jack".)
• Alex finds property that originally belonged to his father, in the attic of the lake house. When Alex brings this property to his father, his father informs him that he was already aware that he [e.g. Alex] had purchased the lake house.
• Jack runs away. Alex abandons the lake house and gives the key to Morgan, so Kate can rent it.
• Jack is found by Kate's boyfriend who assumingly gives Jack to Kate. Kate moves in.

2006

• Kate Forster leaves the lake house with her dog Jack and moves to Chicago. Kate leaves a letter in the rural mailbox in which she apologizes for the paw prints leading to the front door, and for the box that was left in the lake house attic.
• On Valentine's Day, Kate witnesses a man dying in a traffic accident at Daley Plaza. Although she is a doctor and is on the scene within seconds, the man dies "in (her) arms," she later tells her lead doctor. Much later in the film we discover that it was Alex Wyler that died that day.
• It appears obvious that immediately before the Valentine's Day accident at Daley Plaza, Kate and Alex are both living in the same year [e.g. 2006].
• After the accident Kate and her dog Jack drive to the lake house. Kate doesn't see any signs that anyone is there, however when she checks the mailbox she notes that the letter she had left is missing, and another letter has been left in the mailbox that is addressed to her.
• On Valentine's Day, Alex receives Kate's desperate message from 2008 and begins his two year wait.
• While visiting the lake house on a weekend, she finds a response letter.
• Alex and Kate correspond.
• Kate waits at the Il Mare, but Alex does not appear.
• Kate tells Alex not to write to her anymore.
• Alex is alive and well at Midnight on December 31, 2005. He is present at a New Years Eve party, as the new year [e.g. 2006] arrives.
• Alex and his brother Henry meet early in the day on February 14, 2006 . When Henry reminds Alex it is Valentine's Day, 2006, Alex gets into his pickup truck and races to the lake house. He gets on the ladder to the attic and searches for a specific letter from Kate that is stored there.
• Just before the end of the film, there is a replay of some of the events that occurred at Daley Plaza on February 14,2006, in the beginning of the film. During this replay of events that occurred previously, Alex is warned by Kate [who appears in the same positions she was in previously on February 14, 2006] NOT to cross the street, but steps in front of the bus anyways because it is his destiny.

2007

• Kate rekindles her relationship with Morgan.

2008

• On Valentine's Day, Kate and Morgan visit an architecture firm co-owned by Alex's brother, Henry. When Kate notices a sketch of the lake house, she asks Henry who made the sketch. He tells Kate that Alex did; she asks to speak to him, and Henry pauses and says sadly that Alex died two years ago on Valentine's Day. Kate asks where it happened. Henry reveals that Alex was killed by a bus at a plaza. Kate realises that Alex was the man who she had attempted to save, although she didn't know who he was.
• Kate rushes to the Lake House and its mailbox. She leaves a desperate message in the mailbox, telling Alex not to come to meet her at the plaza, not to cross the street and just wait. She waits at the lake house.
• Weeping, Kate pulls out a gun and kills herself.

[edit] Trivia

• Throughout the film, both characters can be seen actually saying "2004" and "2002", but have been dubbed by Reeves and Bullock in post-production to be saying "2006" and "2004".^{[citation needed]}

• The address that Kate (Sandra Bullock) lives at in 2006, 1620 North Racine, is non-existent. While there is a North Racine Street in Chicago, North Racine does not run in the 1600N block of the city.

• Il Mare is referenced in "The Lake House". It is the name of the restaurant that Kate Forester and Alex Wyler agree to meet at.

[edit] Cast

• Sandra Bullock - Dr. Kate Forster
• Keanu Reeves - Alex Wyler
• Shohreh Aghdashloo - Dr. Anna Klyczynski
• Christopher Plummer - Simon J. Wyler
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach - Henry Wyler
• Willeke van Ammelrooy - Mrs. Forster
• Dylan Walsh - Morgan Price
• Lynn Collins - Mona

[edit] Soundtrack

Release date: 20 June 2006, by Lakeshore Records

Track listing

1. "This Never Happened Before" - Paul McCartney
2. "(I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine" - The Clientele
3. "Time Has Told Me" - Nick Drake
4. "Ant Farm" - Eels
5. "It’s Too Late" - Carole King
6. "The Lakehouse" - Rachel Portman
7. "Pawprints" - Rachel Portman
8. "Tough Week" - Rachel Portman
9. "Mailbox" - Rachel Portman
10. "Sunsets" - Rachel Portman
11. "Alex's Father" - Rachel Portman
12. "Il Mare" - Rachel Portman
13. "Tell Me More" - Rachel Portman
14. "She's Gone" - Rachel Portman
15. "Wait For Me" - Rachel Portman
16. "You Waited" - Rachel Portman
17. "I Waited" - Rachel Portman

During the movie Reeves and Bullock dance in 2004 to the Paul McCartney song "This Never Happened Before", but this is anachronistic. The song was released in 2005 on McCartney's album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

[edit] Songs appearing in the film, but not on the soundtrack

• "I Wish You Love" - Rosemary Clooney
• "There Will Never Be Another You" - Rosemary Clooney
• "Pink Moon" - Nick Drake
• "La noyée" - Carla Bruni
• "Sentimental Tattoo" - Jukebox Junkies
• "Chiamami Adesso" - Paolo Conte
• "When It Rains" - Brad Mehldau
• "Young At Heart" - Brad Mehldau
• "Almost Like Being In Love" - Gerry Mulligan
• "O Pato" - Stan Getz
• "A Man and A Woman" - Sir Julian

[edit] Songs associated with the film, but not in the film or on the soundtrack

• The trailer features the song "Somewhere Only We Know" by the band Keane. It is available on the album Hopes and Fears.

[edit] Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $13.6 million, ranking fourth in the United States box office. As of October 1, 2006, the movie has grossed $52,330,111 domestically, and $114,830,111 worldwide.^[1]

On September 26, 2006, the movie became the first to be simultaneously released on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD (courtesy of Warner Home Video).

[edit] Critical reception

According to the website Rotten Tomatoes, 2/3 of the critics gave the movie a negative review, Many critics point to the movie's flawed internal logic, particularly the time paradox created by the ending: Alex only knows Kate is at Daley Plaza in the beginning because she warns him - and asks him to wait - at the end, but for Alex to be alive to meet Kate in 2008 he must first be killed in 2006. So which came first in time? The chicken, or the egg? Valentine's Day, 2006, or Valentine's Day, 2008? These twin themes of timelessness and love seem to flow throughout the entire film.

USA Today critic Claudia Puig wrote, "The Lake House is one of the more befuddling movies of recent years. The premise makes no sense, no matter how you turn it around in your head".

Roger Ebert, while pointing out the movie's logical inconsistencies, wrote, "Never mind, I tell you, never mind!" Ebert gave it a positive review, 3 1/2 stars of four, noting, "What I respond to in the movie is its fundamental romantic impulse."

On August 18, 2006 Reeves and Bullock won a Teen Choice Award for "Choice Liplock" for The Lake House.

On Mike Nelson's Rifftrax site, the summary of the Rifftrax for The Wicker Man describes it as "the most unintentionally hilarious movie since The Lake House [1]"

[edit] Interviews

• Keanu Reeves at Movieweb.com
• Sandra Bullock at Movieweb.com
• Radio interview with Keanu and different trailers

[edit] References

• MovieWeb
• Box Office Mojo
• Chicago Reader

[edit] External links

• Official website,
• The Lake House at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lake House at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Lake House at Box Office Mojo