'Lake House'

[Holly]

Love can be complicated enough without the romantics being two years removed from each other.

That's the premise of “The Lake House,” a reunion of sorts for Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, who had major success together in the mid-1990s as the heroes of the action hit “Speed.” Fans of that film may derive a certain pleasure from seeing them in the same movie again, although saying they're “together” is a matter of semantics, since they rarely occupy the same space this time.

The “How could this happen?” angle is one that hangs over “The Lake House” consistently, since the film's premise all but begs the audience to look for loopholes of logic. Reeves plays an architect who becomes the new occupant of the title house that used to be the home of the doctor portrayed by Bullock. They start communicating through letters left in the site's mailbox ... but his letters are dated 2004, while hers bear the current year. How could this be?

If you get mired in that -- which the makers of “The Lake House” undoubtedly hope you won't -- the magic the movie wants to weave will fall apart for you in about two seconds. Every lush element is piled on to try to help you forget about making sense and just roll with this relationship presumably impossible to fulfill; the idea is a bit easier to handle when it's in a comedy like last year's “Just Like Heaven,” but in this case, it's played out as earnestly as possible. Which only wants to make you scream, “Couldn't happen!” all the louder.

Of course, these characters need someone to discuss their dilemma of the heart with, and the always superb Christopher Plummer and Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Sand and Fog”) serve as those sounding boards. Where “The Lake House” really shortchanges viewers, though, is in promising Reeves and Bullock as a team again. In the literal sense, that doesn't really happen; they're really only in the same place, generally speaking, for only one scene. And that's not nearly enough for those anticipating such a reconnection of two stars.

Suspend disbelief more than you ever have, and “The Lake House” might do the trick for you. Otherwise, make your choice a different place. In a different movie.

(Rated PG)

[ponytail]

I liked it. I like Sandra Bullock. But it is a good movie. The two year difference, I really don't get. I did heard some sniffing in the audience.

[The Flying Dutchmans]

I loved lake house, but of course I can intertwine fantasy into reality when im looking at a movie. you must remember that movies are make believe and thats what they have always been based on, you as the viewer for whatever the period that movie is showing 90 minutes maby 2 hours or more,have to leap beyond reality for that amount of time, so to me lake house may be a bit more far fetched than other movies not based on the truth, but it does stay in the realm of what movies have always been based upon, FANTASY. Maby thats why I loved somewhere in time with christopher reeve so much.