Cameron H.

I haven't, but I've heard of it. Like you, I always assumed it was a kind of tongue in cheek thing. Now I kind of want to check it out.

Awesome! You're on the board! I'm glad so many new people are joining up! I'm excited to see what you have for us

You're added!

Just to clarify my position, I'm not bothered by someone bringing up a JLS. It's not something I get angry about. I just think it's lazy. Whenever someone brings it up I'm just kind of like... Of course I say all of this with full knowledge that there are probably plenty of people who feel the same way about my dumb bullshit

It's cool. He finds someone new...

Oh! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry, because someone must have mentioned this, but when he chooses not to die that day, it's really fucked up that he doesn't write a letter to Sandy telling her he's okay. I know he doesn't think she's checking the mailbox anymore, but he could have dropped her line sometime over the ensuing two years (just in case) so when she arrived at the Lake House there would at least a letter waiting there for her. Something like: "Hey, I decided not to step in front of the bus. So in the off chance that my tampering in God's domain somehow didn't affect your memory, I just wanted to tell you--I'm cool. See you in a few!" And...if he didn't die that day, why was he late showing up? That seems like a dick move. And...does he have any memory of the past two years, or did he, like the tree, just sort of magically appear on the Lake House's driveway? Fuck this movie.

I don't have a problem if Jason wants to propose a JLS. Those are his thing and he delivers them well (this one was particularly good). I'm just tired of people trying to make the same joke like they're being super clever. The first couple of times were fine, but I feel like we're in double digits of people saying/writing, "What if maybe X died doing Y and the rest of the movie is a JLS?" If you can tell that joke well, then I'm all for it, but most people don't bring a creative enough twist to it so it comes off as kind of lazy. I just want everyone to be the best versions of themselves that they can be. Don't try to be Jason. He's already the Platonic Ideal of what a Zouks can be. You're not going to be a better him, you know?

Aww, fuck! Letterboxd/MST3K callback! (You can be James Marsden.)

One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Keanu meets up with Sandy at her birthday party. She's outside moping (as usual) and he sits next to her and starts acting like a real creeper. Seriously, when he says to her, "I'm the Lake-House Guy. You're going to live there when I'm gone..." I have no clue why the next thing that happens isn't her spraying pepper spray in his face and screaming for help. However, she seems taken in by his robotic charm and Uncanny Valley stare, so the scene continues inexorably. He then asks her if she's ever read Persuasion, and she reacts like she just caught him neck deep sniffing around in her panty drawer ("Why...why would you ask that?). He stares back at her. She admits that it's her favorite book--a fact he already knows--and asks him again why he's asking about this very popular Jane Austin book. He then tells her, "A friend just gave it to me, I wondered what it was about." It was at this exact moment that I realized this movie was not written with human hands. Only an alien trying to mimic human thoughts and emotions would ever write such insanity. You're telling me, that while he knows Persuasion is her favorite book, he knows he's going to meet her, and he has her copy in his hot little hands, he can't even be bothered to fucking read it? Had he read it, he could have casually slipped it into conversation as a killer ice breaker, but instead he asks this strange, sad woman to give him the Cliff Notes version of a book he admits he owns but doesn't want to read. What the fuck? "Gee, Sandy, I love you and all, but not enough to read Jane Austin. Not even for a second." Fuck this movie.

I love While You We're Sleeping!

Speaking of Jack the Dog... Why was everyone so blown away that it was a female dog named Jack? As far as I'm concerned, you can name your dog whatever you want. If it's just "Jack," I don't see why that should be a problem or why "Jack" has to be gendered. But even if the concept of a female dog named Jack is too hard to for someone to comprehend, it took me maybe two seconds to think, "Okay, yeah. So, like, Jacqueline?"

Where do you think Jack the Dog is?

Obviously he needs a woman to take care of him...duh! Sandy needs to quit her job doctoring and whip that boy into shape.

Speaking of her sulking... Hey Sandy, if you get invited to a New Year's Party, but all you really want to do is wallow in your despondency, don't go to the fucking party. You're bringing everyone down. You have plenty of other times to get together with your friends and be sad. Tonight isn't about you, Sandy! Stop trying to make it about you!

Hey, I never said that the conceit wasn't dumb as fuck As far as the trailing off and prodding, that is dumb, but I'm pretty sure they do that in You've Got Mail and what not. The challenge is they have to make reading letters aloud somewhat interesting and that's hard to do if you don't bend the rules a bit. In a practical sense, I could see myself, not trailing off, but saying, "I've had a rough relationship with my father, but, who wants to talk about that?" And in response, I could see my Letter Lover writing back, "No, tell me more. I'd like to hear about your father." You'd get basically the same back and forth, but it would be clumsier.

Yes...but should I fuck this movie? Another issue I have with the house, and you touch upon it with the draftiness issue, but it must have cost an absolute FORTUNE to heat! It is a house, on the water, with zero insulation. Do you have any idea how impractical that is? Jesus! In the summer it would be a goddamn greenhouse!

You know what the most depressing thing about this movie is? The hostess. Keanu makes reservations with her for two years in the future, and two years later, she apparently hasn't seen any career mobility. She deserves a promotion, not only for her loyalty, but for the fact that she seems to remember a reservation made two years ago! That's a fucking gift and that restaurant is lucky to have her. Shit, Sandy couldn't even remember the face of the man she cheated on her boyfriend with at her own birthday party. Since I'm on the topic of the restaurant, a couple of other things... First of all, while Sandra is waiting for Keanu, she touches and straightens what would have been his cutlery; however, she doesn't touch it at the handle, she touches it on the blade. I know we are Letter Lovers and all, but please, for fuck's sake, get your grubby fingers off my silverware. Secondly, if you're at a restaurant, particularly a nice restaurant, and you're afraid you might be stood up, please, just go ahead and eat. Sitting there staring at the children ice skate outside just makes you look like some kind of weirdo. Best case scenario, your date is just running a bit late, in which case, you are totally justified in getting started. Worst case scenario, you have a nice meal. Sure, it sucks that you got stood up, but if that's the case, fuck that guy. Treat yourself. You don't have to be a melodramatic sad sack.

I assumed they were joking, but because they kept bringing it up I guess I'll say something. The letters weren't just one line and that's it. They weren't, like, letter Tweeting each other. They were writing full letters that the movie editied to make it seem like a conversation. It would be like if I quoted one of Fister Roboto's posts and cut everything in it except the point I wanted to respond to. Like, was this really that hard to understand? It's not even like it has never been done before. Would you really want them to read 7 page, single-spaced love letters back and forth? A really good, and romantic, example of this is in the Musical 1776. Pretty much all the lines and lyrics between John and Abigail Adams are taken from actual letters between the two but edited into a back and forth dialogue. (Here's the song "Yours, Yours, Yours," which is a pretty good example.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j17CLYJAcKM Sorry, but their confusion about this was mind-boggling to me

I think one of my biggest gripes about this movie is that, ostensibly, it's supposed to be a Love Story, isn't it? Yet, every frame seem to be color corrected with this gauzy, gray-blue hue, and the "dialogue" between Sandy and Keanu is just so dour and fatalistic. Where are my bright colors? Where is the joy? Where is the exuberance of falling in love with someone new? I know that they don't spend really anytime together in the movie, but I think that makes it even more important that each of the letters exude their characters' charms. As they are falling in love with each other, we should be falling in love with them. Instead, we get these extremely low key letters, about pretty much nothing, read in monotonous voices. Snooze-o-rama. Everything is just so bleak. This is a movie in which Sandra Bullock tells a little girl in the hospital that, in regard to finding a man, maybe she shouldn't "wait for something better" because "she could spend her whole life waiting." Sandy says this. In this movie. To a little girl! She is literally saying, "Hey girl, maybe this is as good as it gets, might as well settle." What in the Holy fuck is that? I get it. People get lonely and that's very sad. But fuck, could you maybe not be so depressing? I mean, Sandy's character in While You Were Sleeping was a bit of a lonely loser, but she was at least likable. And while I understand there's a world of difference between a Rom Com and a Romantic Melodrama, could you at least maybe present me with characters that don't make me feel like I need a stiff drink or two after watching them mope through their pathetic little lives?

You're in! Welcome aboard!

^^This and the episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls he was on...

Ha! No. Ever since I quit my job, it's been hard for me be timely. Usually I have a lot going on on Fridays, and if I can't listen by 3:30, I pretty much can't listen until Monday. It is what it is, but it bums me out when I can't keep up with the conversation.

That's what I would have thought too, except there is a definite moment where Sandy watches the tree appear out of nothingness. While I agree that for everyone else there would have always been a tree there, for her specifically, there was definitely a moment of no tree/tree. So she, at least, was at risk of arboreal manslaughter.

Sorry for the multiple posts...I was just able to catch up with the episode today I really think we should give Sandy a break for not recognizing Keanu's mangled body. She's obviously not that good with faces. When they are at her birthday party she tells Keanu that she when she was 16 years old she ran away from home and went to San Francisco to be with her first love but now she can't remember what he looked like. That's absolutely insane! Middle school boyfriend? Okay. The first person you kissed in a "spin-the-bottle" scenario? Fine. But you loved this guy so much you RAN AWAY from home! You followed him halfway across the country and you have no recollection of him? Even if you fell out of love with this guy in just a couple of days, what you're describing would be a very significant touchstone in anyone's life! His face would be seared into your brain forever! Is Sandy face blind or something?