THE LAKE HOUSE

"Please reply"

As Kate Forster (Bullock) moves out of her beloved lake house to start her new job in Chicago, she leaves a letter for the new tenant, welcoming him to his new home. Alex Wyler (Reeves) reads it but she mentions some things about the house that is not quite right. When he writes back to her and asks her about the things she mentioned, the two strikes up a correspondent but as they start to get closer, they realise that meeting might actually be impossible.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock come together again for the first time in twelve year for a romantic drama that will appeal to all hopeless romantics.

After forming excellent screen chemistry on 'Speed' in 1994, it was very surprising to fans that the two took so long to work together again but as the starts enter their forties, they come together again in a movie that will appeal to anyone who loves romantic drama.

'The Lake House' is another high concept romance that has a far-fetched but it is the performances that make this a lot more watchable than it should have been. The plot behind 'The Lake House', means that the two starts spend most of the movie apart. Each of them is living their own lives and has their own problems but they find comfort in the exchange of letters. They share everything and get to know each other more and more with each correspondence but there is a major obstacle to them getting together.

Since starring in the last two 'Matrix' movies and 'Constantine', Keanu Reeves has punctuated his big Hollywood blockbusters with more character driven pieces and his role as Alex is another fine example. His acting prowess has been in question all of his career but his proves in his smaller movies that he is sometimes an actor worth watching. Alex is a good character for Keanu, as he gets to show his more sensitive side and reveal a tenderness that he rarely gets to reveal. As he gets older and the action roles start to dry up, Keanu Reeves might actually become an accomplished actor.

As an actress passes the dreaded forty barrier, romance roles start to dry up but since the turn of the new millennium, Hollywood has finally started to realise that people outside of their twenties and thirties are still looking for love. This means that the longevity of an actress's career as a romantic lead has increased. This is good news for Sandra Bullock as she gets chance to show that she can still be a romance star. Moving away from comedies, with a standout performance in the award winning 'Crash', this is another dramatic role that she can sink her teeth into. She might be looking a little older now but she still has all the charm that made her a star in the first place.

'The Lake House' is a romantic drama aimed at the thirty-five plus generation and even with the slightly outlandish, high concept plot this is a very enjoyable movie that will resonate with the target audience. The teen and twenty-something market will struggle to connect with the two leads but it is good to see that Hollywood is finally realising that people still go to the cinema after they hit forty.

The Notebook

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2006