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Lake House, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 204 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance
Written by:
David Auburn
Eun-Jeong Kim (motion picture Siworae)
Ji-na Yeo (motion picture Siworae)
Directed by: Alejandro Agresti
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 16, 2006
DVD: September 26, 2006
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for some language and a disturbing image
Starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Christopher Plummer
Based on the original 2000 South Korean film "Il Mare," The Lake House is a love story that explores the intriguing concept of an intimate communication across time.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Valentin
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
What I respond to in the movie is its fundamental romantic impulse.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's hard to overestimate what a job of work was accomplished here to keep this from being a catastrophe. But The Lake House, despite its dubious foundation, proves surprisingly sturdy.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The measure of this kind of movie is its seductiveness, not its logic, nor the ways in which it exploits the supernatural angle, and The Lake House is seductive.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Elegantly scripted by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn, The Lake House never establishes any clear rules about how and when these strands of time can intertwine, but it succeeds at forging a bond between people who only know each other on the page.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Bullock has abandoned all her usual cutesy mannerisms, and Reeves is as low-key and convincing as he's been in a role. Whatever else the film is, it's a competent and enjoyable star vehicle.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Bullock and Reeves have an unusual kind of charisma, one that works best when they're apart. Though the filmmakers sometimes put them in the same frame for visual ease, they mostly occupy different times.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
An enjoyably sudsy romance starring a moody Keanu Reeves, a broody Sandra Bullock, and the titular structure - a jewel box of glass and steel perched on stilts over Lake Michigan.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The movie is, above all, a showcase for its stars, who seem gratifyingly comfortable in their own skin and delighted to be in each other's company again, in another deeply silly, effortlessly entertaining movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves are both such guarded celebrities that I have a hard time imagining them as lovers, a problem this Chicago-based romantic fantasy surmounted by isolating them from each other almost entirely.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
How deeply silly is The Lake House? As silly as a movie about two letter-writing lovers separated by a wrinkle in time can be. How much sweet, dumb fun is it? More than you might want to admit.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ethan Alter
Where the film falters is in Alejandro Agresti's overly deliberate direction, which threatens to drown the drama in amber sunsets and self-conscious camera framings. The film looks great, but it lacks spontaneity, an important element of the most memorable screen romances.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Screenwriter David Auburn's awkward dialogue spells out the film's themes with painful literal-mindedness.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The time-warp romantic fantasy The Lake House is a puzzle that is maddeningly obtuse, emotionally overstretched, and virtually absent a sense of interior logic.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
I am conflicted about this film. I like the fact that it takes chances. I appreciate that it's trying to do a supernatural love story without falling into the schmaltz of "Ghost." Yet I recognize that the screenplay is like Swiss cheese - riddled with hole.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
A compelling idea delicately handled and neatly played, especially by Bullock. It just lacks the emotional directness to turn the good into the great.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The Lake House is an example of the way bad movies can sometimes be more interesting than merely mediocre, workmanlike ones, and of the way they sometimes compel us even against our better judgment.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
If you haven't had enough of Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan weepies like "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) and "You've Got Mail" (1998), The Lake House gives us Mopey in Chicago and You've Got Snail Mail.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
We also know the last time Keanu and Sandra shared the screen together. That was yesterday and Speed. This is today and Snail. I'm not betting on a tomorrow.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Never quite sure what it wants to be -- a magical-mysterious love story, a psychodrama, a sprawling family saga, or an uneasy combination of these.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
A slow-moving, never-igniting tale of calendar-crossed lovers that grows less convincing as it proceeds.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
By herself, Bullock isn't enough to hold up this enervating movie, which lumbers along ponderously until, at the end, it takes a giant leap into the suspension of disbelief that lost me altogether.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
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. But ultimately the movie is more interested in the love part of the equation than in the whole crazy, madcap physics part.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
This is a project whose elements, from concept to script to casting, refuse to follow the usual formulas, which is good, yet they never quite cohere.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
There is a germ of a good idea in the notion that an imaginary suitor can be more powerful than a real one. But director Alejandro Agresti isn't the man to pull it off.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The only real magic in The Lake House is that Kate and Alex have never heard of e-mail.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The Lake House has the sensibility of something conceived by Stephen King after an overdose of chocolate-covered cherries and valentine cards. In other words, it's sugary sweet and based on a premise that's just -- no other word will do -- ridiculous.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton
Don't try to figure out a time-travel movie, it will make your head hurt. And if the movie stars Keanu Reeves, all the more reason to just stop, slowly put common sense on the ground, and back away from your capacity for rational thought.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
Treading the same supernatural turf trampled by "Somewhere in Time" and "Frequency," director Alejandro Agresti's gooey, ostensibly spooky romance yarn The Lake House flounders less on its thudding familiarity than on its mood- killing dourness.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The Lake House overflows with heart-stopping thrills, if by ''thrills'' you mean ''watching attractive people wait around for letters to be delivered by mystical forces.'' Which, come to think of it, makes this romantic melodrama sound a lot more interesting than it is.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
One of the more befuddling movies of recent years. The premise makes no sense, no matter how you turn it around in your head.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A glacially paced, extremely moist, terminally gloomy and cliché-laden romantic drama with a supernatural twist.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Nothing stands up to scrutiny -- least of all the lethargic acting and the clumsy script. I was hot to trot for the exit halfway through, but a dogged sense of duty kept me stuck in an endless present.
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
I can't believe that even the most rabid chick-flick masochists wouldn't gag on it.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 204 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
R. Lopez gave it a10:
We see romance flicks so often today that sometimes we don't bother to look for the underlining layers that define them, bad romances just use cheap sex scenes and sexual dialogue to past the time so that you won't be lost in the horrible script and bad acting. Good romances on the other hand have unshakable romantic stories that touch the heart and uplift he soul, they have acting that almost renders you speechless and an unimaginably great script and story that you just love. "The Lake House" has all the qualities of a great romantic drama and so much more. This supernatural love story is something of a stand alone in the modern romance genre it follows protocol down to almost every layer of Romance. But somewhere along the line it takes a really long detour down the path of unique and mind blowing. This film is nothing short of brilliant and remarkable I haven't enjoyed a good Romantic drama since "Titanic" and "Rome + Juliet", this film was extremely entertaining, very sweet and movingly touching to the point that your almost in tears. This movie has the makings of greatness but it's mired down by the people calling it clique, predictable, unoriginal and unmoving. But I'm sorry this film doesn't have cliques, it's unpredictable, it's very original, and it's extremely moving. It resonates with the heart and with the soul on a whole new level, it makes you feel great and gives you that sense of love and enjoyment that you've been searching for in a romantic drama. It's so beautiful and so touching that you just can't ignore the romantic freshness that resonates from this film as you watch the story unfold right in front of you, It's story and plot are so warm and gentle and I loved every single minute of it. And if your forgiving and open your mind and look past everything you see today and look at this film with fresh eyes and a born again sense of love and happiness, than I can promise you this film will conquer. All in all this film delivers a very romantic, very touching and very unique love story that just happens to transcend time itself. The Lake House delivers.
Sergio I. gave it a10:
My girlfriend asked me to watch this movie and i did not. Then she got pissed so i watched it. This movie is great.! Everyone should watch this movie. Everyone! Time travel!
kitty gave it a10:
This was a very entertaining movie. and even if it hadn't been I would love Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves anywhere.
Fay B. gave it a10:
I fell in love with this movie at the theatre. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves created a great love story.
Nick S. gave it a3:
I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie after catching the trailer a couple of times. Unfortunately, the finished product was a bit lacking. There is a spark of life in the movie, and I believe there is an enjoyable film to be found there. Unfortunately, the director was not the one to find it. This could have been a very good movie, if done by someone like Ron Howard or Steven Spielberg. As it stands, I am very disappointed.
Diane B gave it a10:
Wow! I rented and watched this movie tonight and then I watched it again. I was totally emersed in the love that grows between these two. And the fact that this all takes place between two parallel periods in time is what makes it that much more captivating. It is no surprise that I love this movie since my all-time favorite movie has been, “Somewhere In Time” with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour; it, too, is a love story that crosses the boundaries of time. Anyone who limits his or her mind to logic will probably not like this movie. I prefer to think with a mind open to possibility or dream of the possibility, whatever way you care to interpret it. I love this movie and will add it to my DVD collection.
Tony B. gave it a3:
The dog is a female whose name is Jack...talk about confusion. Unfortunately, most of The Lake House doesn't make any more sense than this misnaming of a canine. I like films that play with time as long as they also play by the rules. This one doesn't, and so comes to a conclusion that makes no sense and is quite dishonest. Had it ended several minutes earlier, it would have had some semblance of truth and believability. Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves and Christopher Plummer deserve much better than what they were saddled with here. Incidentally, "The Magic Mailbox" should have been considered as a title.
