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The Lake House

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The Lake House (2006)

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Reviews Counted:39

Fresh:11

Rotten:28

Average Rating:4.9/10

Consensus: The plot of The Lake House is a little too convoluted, and the film fails to pull off the sweeping romance it aims for.

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $52,280,027

Synopsis: Feeling that it's time for a change in her life, Dr. Kate Forster (SANDRA BULLOCK) leaves the suburban Illinois locale where she completed her residency and takes a job at a busy Chicago hospital. ... Feeling that it's time for a change in her life, Dr. Kate Forster (SANDRA BULLOCK) leaves the suburban Illinois locale where she completed her residency and takes a job at a busy Chicago hospital. One thing she is reluctant to leave behind is the uniquely beautiful house she's been renting - a spacious and artfully designed refuge with large windows that overlook a placid lake. It's a place in which she felt her true self. It is a winter morning in 2006. On her way to the city, Kate leaves a note in the mailbox for house's next tenant, asking him to forward her mail and noting that the inexplicable painted paw prints he might notice by the front door were there when she moved in. But when the next tenant arrives, he sees a much different picture. Alex Wyler (KEANU REEVES), a talented but frustrated architect working at a nearby construction site, finds the lake house badly neglected: dusty, dirty and overgrown with weeds. And no sign of paw prints anywhere. The house has special meaning for Alex. In a happier time it was built by his estranged father (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER), a renowned architect who allowed his professional acclaim to grow at the expense of his family life. Alex feels a sense of peace here now and commits to restoring the property to its original beauty. He disregards Kate's note until, days later, while painting the weather-beaten jetty he sees a stray dog run across the fresh paint and then towards the entrance of the house, leaving paw prints exactly where she said they'd be. Baffled, Alex writes back, saying that the house had no occupant before him and wondering how she could have known about the dog; while Kate, who just left it a week ago, imagines he is playing some kind of joke on her and fires back a reply. Just for argument's sake, what day is it there? April 14, 2004. No, she says. It's April 14, 2006. The same day, two years apart. Can this be happening? As Kate and Alex continue to correspond through the lake house's mailbox they confirm that they are, incredibly, impossibly, living two years apart, and each at a time in their lives when they are struggling with past disappointments and trying to make a new start. Sharing this unusual bond, they reveal more of themselves to one another with each passing week - their secrets, their doubts and dreams, until they find themselves falling in love. Determined to bridge the distance between them at last and unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary connection, they tempt fate by arranging to meet. But, by trying to join their two separate worlds, they could risk losing each other forever. --© Warner Bros. [More]

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Dylan Walsh

Director: Alejandro Agresti

Director: Alejandro Agresti
Screenwriter: David Auburn
Producer: Sonny Mallhi, Dana Goldberg, Doug Davison
Composer: Rachel Portman
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for The Lake House

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1 - 12 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
07/28/06
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock bring their respective talents to this badly fumbled attempt at a supernatural romantic comedy.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
07/20/06
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Despite the conventions, and a time travel gimmick that winds up being an utter mess, there's something worth appreciating here which makes it certainly worth a look

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
06/29/06
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons
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A compelling idea delicately handled and neatly played, especially by Bullock. It just lacks the emotional directness to turn the good into the great.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
06/24/06
Ian Freer
Ian Freer
Empire Magazine
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I was hot to trot for the exit halfway through, but a dogged sense of duty kept me stuck in an endless present.

Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | comment Comment
06/19/06
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
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Enough of the plot and its paradoxes. What I respond to in the movie is its fundamental romantic impulse. It makes us hope these two people will somehow meet.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/16/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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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.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
06/15/06
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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A chronological brain-teaser confounding enough to keep you busy trying to figure out whether those holes are in the story or in your logic.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
06/15/06
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
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There is still chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, but a heavy dose of Hollywood metaphysics keeps them apart for most of this wondrously illogical time-travel romance.

comment Comment
06/15/06
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
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The Lake House has the sensibility of something conceived by Stephen King after an overdose of chocolate-covered cherries and valentine cards.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
06/15/06
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
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It’s sweet, and it works.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
06/12/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Ebert & Roeper
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This is one of my favorite movies so far this year.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
06/12/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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[The Lake House is] for profundity through multiple story levels that aren't fully realized.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/12/06
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
Variety
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1 - 12 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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