Balek's Movie Review™ - The Lake House

Every now and then a guy has to make a concession. Whether it’s missing out on one of those Sunday football games, to gracefully accepting directions while driving, we sway on our likes and desires to accommodate the ones we love. The movies we watch is another example, and gave the birth of the ‘chick flick’. For those few who don’t know, the ‘chick flick’ is the movie made specifically for those without the Y-chromosome, usually restricted to the drama or romantic comedy genre, and make women in our lives go gooey. Well, after subjecting my wife to Step Brothers, I owed her one and had ordered up The Lake House for just such an occasion.

The Lake House tells the tale of two people, separated by 2 years in time, seemingly lost in their own lives. Both are going through the motions, with rather successful lives but still with a pang of need they can’t put their fingers on. The one thing they have in common is the lake house, a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque structure on, aptly, a lake outside Chicago. Via some hole in the space-time continuum, or just a magical mailbox, they are able to pass letters back and forth between themselves. One thing leads to another, they fall in love, try to meet, fail, try again, succeed, and live happily ever after (I doubt anyone will call that a spoiler – that’s the format for most romantic ‘chick flicks’).

Like with the previously reviewed comedy, video and audio isn’t the cornerstone of this movie like it would be in an action or sci-fi movie. However, they are both well done to the point of not being something that detracts from the movie. What does make or break this type of movie are the screenplays and the acting applied to it. Fortunately, both Reeves and Bullock do a good job in their roles, seeming lost but just waiting to be found. The movie moves along well, has a twist or two along the way that keeps you engaged with the plot, and ends well.

All in all, I’ll admit it (and knowing full well the world of crap I may get in the comments), but I enjoyed this ‘chick flick’. It doesn’t rank up their with Shakespeare in Love or Ever After in movies of the genre I actually seek out on occasion, but I won’t deny enjoying the time watching the movie with the wife.