Review: "The Lake House" is a Good House (Happy B'day, Sandra Bullock)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 208 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Lake House (2006)
Running time:  98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some language and a disturbing image
DIRECTOR:  Alejandro Agresti
WRITER:  David Auburn (based upon the film Il Mare by Eun-Jeong Kim and Ji-na Yeo and produced by Sidus)
PRODUCERS:  Doug Davidson and Roy Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alar Kivilo, A.S.C. C.S.C.
EDITORS:  Lynzee Klingman, A.C.E. and Alejandro Brodersohn
COMPOSER:  Rachel Portman (with contributions from Paul M. van Brugge)

FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Willeke van Ammelrooy

The subject of this movie review is The Lake House, a 2006 fantasy romance movie starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.  In the film, a lonely doctor, who lives in 2006, begins a time-spanning romance with a frustrated architect, who lives in 2004, by exchanging letters through the mailbox at an unusual lakeside home.

Improbable and peculiar it may be, but The Lake House is the kind of romantic movie that deserves to have the adjective, “magical” describe it.  Having an enchanted mailbox bring the film’s lovers together is strange.  Never mind that the movie’s time travel hook is illogical, and ignore that the two leads communicate in a way that even the film admits is impossible.  This is about love.  Based upon the Korean film, Siworae (Il Mare is its international title.), The Lake House is an old-fashioned tale of star-crossed lovers who, like Romeo and Juliet, romance against all odds – even against the laws of science.

After moving away from her peaceful lakeside home – a glass house built on stilts over a lake north of Chicago, a lonely physician, Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) mails a letter back to the lake house asking whoever will be the next tenant to forward any of her stray mail to her.  It is a winter morning in 2006.  That next tenant seems to be a frustrated architect, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), who is confused that someone claims to have lived in the lake house before him since he is the first person to ever live in it.  After several more letters back and forth, Kate, on a lark, asks Alex, “What day is it there?”  Alex responds, April 14, 2004.

They discover that they occupy the lake house, but two years apart – Alex in the past and Kate in the present.  The mailbox at the lake house allows them to communicate across two years difference in time.  Now, they must unravel the mysteries of this wrinkle in time that allows their extraordinary romance to live before its too late, but if they meet and try to join their separate worlds, they may lose each other forever.

The acting isn’t great, and sometimes it’s, at best, lamely professional.  Reeves, best known for his stiff speaking style, spends much of the film looking pained, as if constantly on cue from director Alejandro Agresti (an Argentinean known for his film, Valentin).  Bullock’s contribution is to spend the film looking forlorn, lonely, or winsome.  Still, the two are movie stars, and they know how to work the camera, which loves them and makes them look good on the big screen.

Over a decade ago, Reeves and Bullock were a hot screen pair in the hit action film, Speed, an edge-of-your-seat thriller that appealed to the adrenaline junkie in moviegoers.  Back then, many of us ignored any of Speed’s flaws in logic because we had a good time watching it.  This time, with The Lake House, Reeves and Bullock try to get us to ignore logic again.  If the viewer responds favorably to that fundamental romantic impulse – our love affair with the love story, we’ll ignore how things about this film nag us and enjoy the romance.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Updated:  Friday, July 26, 2013

Review: "Shutter" a Creepy, Moody Ghost Story

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shutter (2008)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for terror, disturbing images, sexual content, and language
DIRECTOR: Masayuki Ochiai
WRITER: Luke Dawson
PRODUCERS: Doug Davison, Takashige Ichise, and Roy Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Katsumi Yanagishima
EDITORS: Tim Alverson and Michael N. Knue

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, Megumi Okina, David Denman, John Hensley, and Maya Hazen

The new 20th Century Fox release, Shutter, is a remake of a 2004 Thai film (which was also remade in the nation of Tamil). It’s a unique blend of a Thai original turned J-horror (Japanese horror) by a Japanese director, Masayuki Ochiai (Saimin, Kansen), with American money.

The 2008 Shutter follows newlyweds Benjamin (Joshua Jackson) and Jane Shaw (Rachael Taylor) as they move to Japan for Ben’s new assignment, a lucrative fashion shoot in Tokyo. One evening, Ben and Jane are making their way home on a mountain road when Jane, who is driving the car, hits a young woman standing in the middle of the road. She seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, but later, the police cannot find a body, and the incident leaves Jane shaking.

Ben, having worked in Japan before, is fluent in Japanese and easily reunites with his old friends and colleagues, while Jane struggles to adapt and makes unsettling ventures into Tokyo. Taking her own photographs, Jane soon discovers mysterious white blurs – eerily almost human in form – appearing in these pictures. Soon, Ben’s expensive photo shoots are ruined when these ghostly blurs start appearing in his photographs. Jane comes to believe that the blurs in the photographs are evidence of the spirit of the dead girl she ran over on the road, come back to haunt her for leaving her body in the woods. However, the truth is far darker and may tear Jane’s new life apart.

Shutter eagerly follows the J-horror formula that made other American remakes of Asian horror films successful, including The Ring and The Grudge. It’s a formula that takes the angry ghost of a dead girl or young woman and sets her loose on the unsuspecting humans that either got too close to her anger or hurt her when she lived. Shutter, however, is more than just another Asian dead girl ghost story. Masayuki Ochiai makes Shutter a genuinely creepy affair, so full of moody atmosphere that this movie seems like a fog-drenched ghost story right off the damp cobblestone streets of some Victorian nightmare. The bumps, moans, footsteps, and assorted odd noises that make a scary movie unnerving are all here. The angry spirit materializes out of the dark areas behind characters and menacing shadows, always lurking around the corner, make frequent appearances.

Sure, Shutter is mostly formula. The script by Luke Dawson eschews delving into the surprisingly complex characters with their savory back stories in favor of working the frights and scares. If you easily buy into the kinds of ghostly scenarios presented by movies like The Grudge, you’ll wear Shutter’s layered ambiance of dread over your shoulders like a heavy cloak and clutch yourself in fear.

6 of 10
B

Monday, March 24, 2008

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Review: "Vanilla Sky" is a Crazier Cruise-Diaz Team-Up

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Vanilla Sky (2001)
Running time: 136 minutes (2 hours, 16 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexuality and strong language
DIRECTOR: Cameron Crowe
WRITER: Cameron Crowe (based upon the film Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) by Alejandro Amenábor and Mateo Gil Rodreguez)
PRODUCERS: Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, and Paula Wagner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Toll (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi
COMPOSER: Nancy Wilson
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/ROMANCE/SCI-FI/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor, Timothy Spall, Johnny Galecki, Michael Shannon, and Tilda Swinton

David Aames (Tom Cruise) is the wealthy scion of a publishing empire who lives only for himself and his pleasures. He treats his novelist friend Brian Shelby (Jason Lee, Chasing Amy) as a possession to be admitted or dismissed as needed, though Aames often professes deep love for Shelby. He has recreational sex with another friend, Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), a girl who practically admits to being around the block quite a few times. At a party that he hosts, David sees a stunning beauty that Brian has brought to the party with him. The looker, Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz, who was in the Spanish film upon which Vanilla Sky is based), throws David for a loop and he falls very hard for her.

Aww, but Julie is jealous; she follows David and is waiting for him after he spends the night (a sex free night) with Sofia. In an insane rage, Julie, with David a passenger, runs her car off the road, killing herself. David survives, but his body is damaged and his face is badly scarred. From that point, David’s life is a series of time shifts; past, present, and future loose their meanings.

Directed by Cameron Crowe, who also directed Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky is a mind numbing and genre bending film that mixes elements of romance, romantic thriller, mystery, suspense, and science fiction. It demands the viewers’ complete attention, while it careens across the screen like the out of control car that changes David Aames life.

Vanilla Sky is also a movie that can test an audience’s patience. It has ideas and messages, and most people do not want their movies to preach to them, at least not preach smart ideas. They want a loud, vivid, cinematic experience – special effects and movie magic. “Entertain me” is the mantra, and Crowe adds only the thinnest of candy coatings to his film.

The movie begins with a beautiful scene in which David discovers that he is alone in Times Square; he runs down the street for a few minutes totally afraid of being alone before we learn that this is a dream. There are also voiceovers while we follow David’s privileged life. There is the accident, and then we find David in a dark room wearing a mask, while a psychologist (Kurt Russell) prods him for answers regarding a murder of which David has been accused. From then, we’re bouncing back and forth through time, through illusions, dreams, fantasies, flashbacks. It can be disconcerting, but the film is so alluring that you want to soldier on.

Cruise has always been a good actor in the hands of good director, and Crowe is good. Over his career, Cruise has learned to open himself up to the possibilities of using his handsome face to express a variety of feelings and emotions, where once he simply lit up that million dollar smile and that was that. He is good here and quite believable. It’s no trick to play a spoiled, wealthy brat, but he convincingly transforms himself into the tortured package of damaged goods.

The supporting cast in nice, but while Penelope Cruz got all the attention, Diaz is the surprise. Some may believe her looks carry her career, but she can act. She plays the wild, vulnerable, hurt, and angry Julie Gianni to the hilt while also playing it down low and subtle. She creates a three-dimensional villain of sly evil and of terrible sadness.

Vanilla Sky is rife with musical references, most of which are quite annoying, but the Jeff Blakely reference is dead on appropriate for its scene. There are lots of visual references from pop culture to fine art, and they mean something, but you have to catch them, as they fly by so quickly.

Vanilla Sky is a good film, especially because it asks for the viewer to get involved where most movies only want to yell at you. At its heart are good messages about responsibility for the choices one makes, selfishness, love, and sacrifice. It stumbles and rushes to it fantastical, sci-fi ending that almost destroys film, but the movie is a worthy effort by ambitious talents. By no means perfect, it is still a grand entertainment and a wonderful puzzle with which to struggle, and it doesn’t mind trying to be smart even when it over reaches its ambitions.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 nominations: “Best Music, Original Song” (Paul McCartney for the song "Vanilla Sky")

2002 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Paul McCartney for the song "Vanilla Sky") and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Cameron Diaz)

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