Memoirs of The Lake House

I remember it very well...it was May 19, it was the first time that K and I was going to watch a movie. I was still pinching myself as we were going towards the cinema because for almost two years of being together, convincing him to watch a movie was like convincing a goat to take a bath. He felt uneasy when he was inside a cinema. He hated it. He'd rather wait for the DVD release and watch a movie in the comfort of his own home (or mine) than waste money and not have the power to rewind or fastforward or pause the movie for a pee break.

Anyway, that day was different. For the first time, he said yes. We were going to watch the Da Vinci Code together. And we did. It was a dream come true.

On that day too, I was able to see for the first time, the full trailer of THE LAKE HOUSE. I told myself that I had to watch it. Problem was, K didn't like 'chick flicks', so I didn't push him too hard because I know he was still getting past his uneasiness in cinemas so I always let him pick what movie to watch.

At long last! Today, June 22, 2006, I was able to watch it! I can't say that it's a feel good movie. It was a movie that made me wonder and think of the many what ifs in this world. Here's a little something something about the movie that I got from it's official website.

Feeling that it's time for a change in her life, Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) leaves the suburban Illinois locale where she completed her residency and takes a job at a busy Chicago hospital. One thing she is reluctant to leave behind is the uniquely beautiful house she has been renting - a spacious and artfully designed refuge with large windows that overlook a placid lake. It's a place in which she felt her true self.

It is a winter morning in 2006.

On her way to the city, Kate leaves a note in the mailbox for the lake house's next tenant, asking him to forward her mail and noting that the inexplicable painted paw prints he might notice by the front door were there when she moved in.

But when the next tenant arrives, he sees a much different picture. Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), a talented but frustrated architect working at a nearby construction site, finds the lake house badly neglected: dusty, dirty, overgrown with weeds. And no sign of paw prints anywhere.

The house has special meaning for Alex. In a happier time, it was built by his estranged father, a renowned architect who let his professional acclaim grow at the expense of his family life. Alex feels a sense of peace here now and commits to restoring the property to its original beauty. He disregards Kate's note until days later, while painting the weather-beaten jetty, he sees a stray dog run across the fresh paint and then towards the entrance of the house leaving paw prints exactly where she said they'd be.

Baffled, Alex writes back, saying that the house had no occupant before him and wondering how she could have known about the dog; while Kate, who just left it a week ago, imagines he is playing some kind of joke on her and fires back a reply.

"Just for argument's sake, what day is it there?"
"April 14, 2004"
"No," she says. "It's April 14, 2006."
"The same day, two years apart."
"Can this be happening?"

As Kate and Alex continue to correspond through the lake house's mailbox, they confirm that they are, incredibly, impossibly, living two years apart, and each at a time in their lives when they are struggling with past disappoinitments and trying to make a new start. Sharing this unusual bond, they reveal more of themselves to one another with each passing week - their secrets, their doubts and dreams, until they find themselves falling in love.

Determined to bridge the distance between them at last and unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary connection, they tempt fate by arranging to meet. But, by trying to join their two separate worlds, they could risk losing each other forever.

I loved the movie so much but it got me to thinking about my life. This is always what happens when I get to like the movie so much--I get so affected by it.

What if K was just one of my 'morgans'? What if the one is still somewhere out there? But then, there was something that Kate said that struck me like lightning...What if you've waited your whole life for that special someone only to find out that no one was waiting for you...

Hmmm.....let me go to my mailbox......