The Lake House: Critic Reviews

The only real magic in The Lake House is that Kate and Alex have never heard of e-mail.

There is still chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, but a heavy dose of Hollywood metaphysics keeps them apart for most of this wondrously illogical time-travel romance.

The last time Bullock and Reeves were together on screen the result was Speed. This should have been entitled Stop.

The Lake House is one of the more befuddling movies of recent years. The premise makes no sense, no matter how you turn it around in your head.

The Lake House has the sensibility of something conceived by Stephen King after an overdose of chocolate-covered cherries and valentine cards.

As soon as Kate lets drop that her favorite author is Jane Austen and the Nick Drake songs kick in on the soundtrack, you know this movie won't be taking any prisoners. Don't fight it with logic, because you'll lose.

Watching it is like being force-fed cotton candy laced with Xanax (or vice versa).

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.

I was hot to trot for the exit halfway through, but a dogged sense of duty kept me stuck in an endless present.

The film moves toward a spooky coincidence that canny viewers will predict in the first act. I wish I hadn't; it killed all the film's suspense and much of its dewy seduction.

The joy lies in getting there, with lush visual direction by Alejandro Agresti and appealing performances by Ms. Bullock and her old Speed co-star Keanu Reeves.

The Lake House swamps its heart-aimed ambitions with too many head- scratching moments.

Those wishing to suppress real-life traumas may submit to the deliriously stupid romantic time-travel drama The Lake House -- I did and had a jolly time.

Enough of the plot and its paradoxes. What I respond to in the movie is its fundamental romantic impulse. It makes us hope these two people will somehow meet.

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.

Engaging.

It's refreshing to see the much-maligned Reeves show many colors in his acting palette. And the subdued Bullock is an excellent complement, the puzzle piece that squares off his jigsaw personality.

Let's do the Time Warp again.

The Lake House may float your boat if you're starved for romance, but really, love deserves better.

Instead of paying attention to the love story, you'll be staring at the capacious holes in the plot. While the premise might seem hard to understand, it's really not. It's just hard to swallow.

I have always felt that both Ms. Bullock's patented expressions of anguish and Mr. Reeves' stoical minimalism have been somewhat underrated.

The pieces of the puzzle don't fit together to form a coherent or satisfying narrative, and all you're left with is a big, dumb 'Huh?'

[The Lake House is] for profundity through multiple story levels that aren't fully realized.

The sort of dopey movie best appreciated while wearing pajamas.

It doesn't quite work, but it fails with warmth.