The Lake House

The last time we saw Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves onscreen together, they were trying to avoid setting off a bus bomb in Speed. 'œThis time,' said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, 'œthe bomb is the movie.' This soggy love story comes from a South Korean movie called Il Mare, which told the story of a winsome couple who inhabited the same house in two different time periods, but managed to communicate and fall in love through letters placed in a magical mailbox. That plot makes for a logical mess from start to finish, said Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. Why don't these star-crossed lovers conspire to win the lottery, or report their time-traveling mailbox to NASA? And even if you could put your brain on hold for two hours to follow the story, you couldn't ignore the terrible acting. Bullock doesn't convince as a lonely doctor, and Reeves' wooden demeanor makes him 'œthe Al Gore of the acting world.' Still, there's something charming about the way this movie refuses to be the usual romantic comeedy, said Christopher Kelly in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. No matter how ridiculous the plot and all the stereotypical characters, it's not every movie that manages to reference Jane Austen novels and famous architects. It's nice to see 'œa sincere attempt to make a movie for adults,' even when that attempt falls short.

Rating: PG

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