The Lake House (2006)

Synopsis: A woman and a man living in different times communicate with each other through a supernatural mail system.
Appraisal: The other day I was commenting about a romantic comedy I liked (Jet Lag), and I called it a "standard romantic comedy". After seeing "The Lake House" I realized that there are actually two standard categories of romantic films: the sane ones and the sick ones. The sane branch is exemplified by that film I liked (Jet Lag), and the sick one is exemplified by this 'Lake House'. Perhaps the film that exemplifies best this current is "Somewhere in Time". "The Lake House" can be thought of as a combination of SIT with "An Affair to Remember", a film that I hesitatingly categorize as borderline between the two types. The main characteristic of the "sick" romantic film is the premise that there is one person in the universe that is right for only one other person. Although I use the term "sick", I wouldn't dismiss a film based on what category it is in. For instance, "Portrait of Jenny" is probably the insanest representative of the sick category, and I think it is a masterpiece. So, if I say that "The Lake House" is a bad film, it is because it is fatally boring, and only because of that. Its time shifts, although not too hard to follow for modern audiences, eventually become disctracting as we realize that these characters simply have nothing about them that could make us care about them in the first place.
Rating: 20