The Lake House
Book in Hand: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Zoer
Song in Mind: What i Won't Do For Love by Elliot Yamin (thanks for the mp3, rickey!!!)
Being sick has its advantages. I was waddling around the house after a pointless medical check-up (they can't tell me anything about the pain in my stomach) clutching my tummy and bewailing my mystifying illness. My cousin couldn't stand to see me so blue so he ran to the nearest talipapa and bought a VCD copy of the movie "The Lake House." I didn't ask him to! (I promise to all the staunch Privacy is a Crime advocates!) But he said he wanted to cheer me up and he knew I wanted to see the movie because I heart Sandra and Keanu. Since I am in no condition to go to the mall, I did the evil thing & watched the VCD.
Oh boy. What a tangled web of implausibilities we weave, watching this movie.
The movie started out okay, a bit slow, showing Sandra Bullock as a young Doctor named Kate Forster dealing with a boring life (don't we all?). Three minutes into the film, she has moved out of the Lake House. She left a note to the next renter, who now happens to be Alex Wyler played by Keanu Reeves--- who turned out to be the previous renter after all.
I hear you go, Huh?
Yeah, exactly. The conflict of the story lies in the schism or glitch in time that separates Alex and Kate. She's alive and kicking in the year 2006, while He's still working through the year 2004. Their only means of communication is leaving each other handwritten notes left in the Lake House mailbox. Talk about a seriously odd long-distance relationship.
No, no! Please do't ask me to explain the plot! It would be futile! It would make no sense! My Super-Movie-Critic-Powers has failed me... or maybe I'm just not up to it right now. (Sick and all --- excuses, excuses). I cannot give you a review, but I can give you tips on how to enjoy the movie.
Tip#1 : Watch with a bunch of teenagers who keeps oooh-in and aaah-ing at every contrived romantic moment and laughing at every comedic panhandling. It'll be your cue what the fuck the scriptwriters and the director was trying to achieve with that act. This helps if you are as jaded as I am.
Tip# 2: Do not approach the story line with a rational, logical frame of mind. If you do that, everything falls apart. The story was meant to be illogical and hole-y. Ignore the fact that Alex and Kate did not even question their situation too much (no psychiatrists, no wide-eyed hapless am i going insane self-interviews). Just watch. Flick off the brain power and cruise along.
Tip# 3: Immerse yourself in the glory of the chemistry between Sandra and Keanu. They flexed this incredibly bankable chemistry in Speed. Now, indulge in their three-minute kissing scenes.
Tip # 4: Watch their faces. Note how lines are starting to show on Sandra's face, but she's still down-to-earth beautiful. And Keanu's lean Neo-face has actually meat on it now, and he's starting to get a bit jocular. But somehow, that's even sexier than the chopsticks he used to be.
Tip # 5: Appreciate the beautiful architecture of the houses. Take in the sights of the City of Chicago, usually overshadowed by way too many movies situated in New York. They don't have a Central Park, but they do have The Lake.
Tip#6: Forget all the time-travelling, past-averting movies you'd seen before. It doesn't work here.
Tip# 7: Don't eat squid balls with sticky sauce that drops on every danged furniture that you have to keep wiping up causing you to lose precious seconds necessary to understand the film. Well, just don't.
Tip # 8: Just ignore Alex's strange younger brother played by a strange-looking guy. His eyes -- too blue! Too wide! His smile --- too weird! He should play a creepy person in a real horror movie. He'd be earning the big bucks, just like that!
Tip # 9: If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'd love the way they keep quoting the book Persuasion. If you're a Dostoyevsky fan, you'd be pissed off wondering what the fuck is his connection to the whole damned thing.
Tip # 10: The conclusion was a bit unsatisfying for me. Do make up your own alternative ending.
Follow these tips and you might just end up enjoying every blessed thing about the movie.
And wondering how much longer you have to wait for your own lake house love story to commence.
Or scare yourself silly wondering if your true love is somehow stuck three years behind you or stuffed in a mailbox somewhere or was killed the moment he laid his eyes on you and you didn't even know it.
Ah, Love.
Trabaja de maneras misteriosas. En los lugares más extraños. De la manera más ilógica. Usted consiguió amarla.
Es mágico.
Song in Mind: What i Won't Do For Love by Elliot Yamin (thanks for the mp3, rickey!!!)
Being sick has its advantages. I was waddling around the house after a pointless medical check-up (they can't tell me anything about the pain in my stomach) clutching my tummy and bewailing my mystifying illness. My cousin couldn't stand to see me so blue so he ran to the nearest talipapa and bought a VCD copy of the movie "The Lake House." I didn't ask him to! (I promise to all the staunch Privacy is a Crime advocates!) But he said he wanted to cheer me up and he knew I wanted to see the movie because I heart Sandra and Keanu. Since I am in no condition to go to the mall, I did the evil thing & watched the VCD.
Oh boy. What a tangled web of implausibilities we weave, watching this movie.
The movie started out okay, a bit slow, showing Sandra Bullock as a young Doctor named Kate Forster dealing with a boring life (don't we all?). Three minutes into the film, she has moved out of the Lake House. She left a note to the next renter, who now happens to be Alex Wyler played by Keanu Reeves--- who turned out to be the previous renter after all.
I hear you go, Huh?
Yeah, exactly. The conflict of the story lies in the schism or glitch in time that separates Alex and Kate. She's alive and kicking in the year 2006, while He's still working through the year 2004. Their only means of communication is leaving each other handwritten notes left in the Lake House mailbox. Talk about a seriously odd long-distance relationship.
No, no! Please do't ask me to explain the plot! It would be futile! It would make no sense! My Super-Movie-Critic-Powers has failed me... or maybe I'm just not up to it right now. (Sick and all --- excuses, excuses). I cannot give you a review, but I can give you tips on how to enjoy the movie.
Tip#1 : Watch with a bunch of teenagers who keeps oooh-in and aaah-ing at every contrived romantic moment and laughing at every comedic panhandling. It'll be your cue what the fuck the scriptwriters and the director was trying to achieve with that act. This helps if you are as jaded as I am.
Tip# 2: Do not approach the story line with a rational, logical frame of mind. If you do that, everything falls apart. The story was meant to be illogical and hole-y. Ignore the fact that Alex and Kate did not even question their situation too much (no psychiatrists, no wide-eyed hapless am i going insane self-interviews). Just watch. Flick off the brain power and cruise along.
Tip# 3: Immerse yourself in the glory of the chemistry between Sandra and Keanu. They flexed this incredibly bankable chemistry in Speed. Now, indulge in their three-minute kissing scenes.
Tip # 4: Watch their faces. Note how lines are starting to show on Sandra's face, but she's still down-to-earth beautiful. And Keanu's lean Neo-face has actually meat on it now, and he's starting to get a bit jocular. But somehow, that's even sexier than the chopsticks he used to be.
Tip # 5: Appreciate the beautiful architecture of the houses. Take in the sights of the City of Chicago, usually overshadowed by way too many movies situated in New York. They don't have a Central Park, but they do have The Lake.
Tip#6: Forget all the time-travelling, past-averting movies you'd seen before. It doesn't work here.
Tip# 7: Don't eat squid balls with sticky sauce that drops on every danged furniture that you have to keep wiping up causing you to lose precious seconds necessary to understand the film. Well, just don't.
Tip # 8: Just ignore Alex's strange younger brother played by a strange-looking guy. His eyes -- too blue! Too wide! His smile --- too weird! He should play a creepy person in a real horror movie. He'd be earning the big bucks, just like that!
Tip # 9: If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'd love the way they keep quoting the book Persuasion. If you're a Dostoyevsky fan, you'd be pissed off wondering what the fuck is his connection to the whole damned thing.
Tip # 10: The conclusion was a bit unsatisfying for me. Do make up your own alternative ending.
Follow these tips and you might just end up enjoying every blessed thing about the movie.
And wondering how much longer you have to wait for your own lake house love story to commence.
Or scare yourself silly wondering if your true love is somehow stuck three years behind you or stuffed in a mailbox somewhere or was killed the moment he laid his eyes on you and you didn't even know it.
Ah, Love.
Trabaja de maneras misteriosas. En los lugares más extraños. De la manera más ilógica. Usted consiguió amarla.
Es mágico.
Lake House is a remake of a Korean film- "IL MARE"
ReplyDeleteYou'd like the Korean version, they play the "time space warp" card a little bit better.
Of course, make mine Shaider. (uhh, hehe).
God bless! ^_^
Yeah, they seem better at everything that's a little warped. You gotta love them. I mean, it takes extra bit of "humanity" to really play it off.
ReplyDelete