Going Postal

There is one fantastic scene in "The Lake House", the soppy, metaphysical romance about two lovers linked by a correspondence through time via a magic mailbox. Keanu Reeves, playing a man from 2004 meets a woman from 2006 (played by Sandra Bullock) in his own time. Did you follow all that? It's 2004 and Alex meets Kate, but she has no idea who he is because she won't start writing to him for another two years. But anyway, none of that matters. The magic in the scene comes from the actors. For one long, uncut moment, Alex and Kate sit on a porch and get to know each other. It's probably the one true moment in the film and some of the best acting we've seen from either of its stars. Alejandro Agresti's direction, which up until this point has been slightly uncongealed, takes a real chance in letting his actors perform in what may be the longest uncut shot either of them has done, but they rise to the occasion. The results are splendid and only serve to bring to mind what could have been.

"The Lake House", based on the Korean film "Il Mare", falls victim to the classic star-pairing blunder: keeping the actors apart for a majority of the film. Like "Sleepless in Seattle" and, to a similar extent, "Heat", the audience for "House" has come to the theater looking to see two stars play together on screen. In this case, to see if there's still chemistry between Mr. Reeves and Ms. Bullock after their memorable ride in Jan De Bont's Die-Hard-on-a-bus thriller "Speed". "House" couldn't be more of a departed for the two charismatic actors. Mr. Reeves, ever a blank slate, is not a great fit for a hard-core romance. And Ms. Bullock turns down her peppy charm to the point that she's positively maudlin. The few smiles she gives in the film are almost blinding by comparison. Still, as the porch scene proves, the two work very well together. But there's very little of that chemistry in the movie since it's hard for screenwriter David Auburn to put two characters in the same room, when they live in different times.

That doesn't stop Mr. Agresti from throwing in a few tricks to keep us appeased. In split-screen, we see Alex and Kate sitting in the same location two years apart, their letters, read voice-over, have the immediacy of an instant message conversation - sometimes one will even cut off the other (not sure how that works in a postal exchange). Mr. Auburn does what he can to work within the film's conceit, but "House" is neither fantastical nor realistic enough to generate much momentum. And, like most time travel writers, he can't resist the urge to make everything wrap up a little too neatly - to the detriment of the story.

"The Lake House" does have the virtue of doing for Chicago what Woody Allen constantly does for Manhattan. In one overly romantic scene, Alex plans a walking tour of his favorite Windy City locales for Kate, complete with a numbered map. It's silly, but it works if you're willing to buy the premise. Along the way, Mr. Agresti shows us that Chicago is much more than the Sears Tower. And not a bad place to spend two years.