Episode 160 - The Lake House: LIVE!

[purltwo 11]

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.

 

 

But her hair, makeup and wardrobe have all improved, so presumably she's at least gotten some good raises? Or taken some good bribes to give away tables?

 

I'm imagining the Wyler Reservation has become A Thing among the Il Mare staff - speculating about it, telling jokes about it, getting Hostess to tell the tale of the Weirdo Booking A Table Two Years Ahead, etc.

[Cam Bert 8145]

As I'm still at work and don't have my notes just a few random things I recall regarding things already brought.

 

- Fuck this movie

 

-So we're told Il Mare is the best restaurant in all of Chicago and it's so popular you need a reservation at least two years in advance. Yet Sandra Bullock is allowed to sit there all night and sulk? I mean yes it's very sad that her lover has not shown and I'm sure the staff was very curious about this weird two year reservation but at a certain point her time is up. It's fully booked. They have to move that table. While she's sitting there staring off into the mid distance there are couples that have to dine at the bar because they aren't kick this woman out of her table even though she's not ordering or eating.

 

-I just want to further echo what a horrible love story this is. A key element any romance movie or rom-com is that the characters have to fall in love. We as the audience have to see these characters fall in love and buy that they love each other and how they fell for each other and for me anyway movie fails at this. They're suppose to be falling in love via the letters that they write, yet none of the letters are overly romantic and aside from the odd line nothing loving is ever really said. Her superior and his brother think this is all silly and say things like "they must write one hell of a letter" but do they? The movie never shows us that. Like Cameron H said if we're seeing the snippets of the letters, the parts they're responding to help replicate dialogue, we never see what is so great about the letters. We miss the parts of the letter that make them swoon and fall for each other. We just get question, answer, and if we're lucky a quip. We don't get passion or love, and the V.O. of the letters is just flat and lifeless like text would be so we don't really feel it there either. Slight edit: The walk they go on I guess is the start of the romance. As far as we know they've literally only introduced themselves, and all of a sudden they're in love. It's a love story that spend too much time on side stories that don't bring this characters together or help so to conflict of being in love but in separate times.

[The_Jeff_Of_My_Group 5]

This drove me so crazy that I had to create an account to post about it. 1620 N. Racine is not an address that exists in Chicago. That address is in the middle of a river. If you google 1620 Racine it will show you 1960 N Racine, but if you look to the south where north Ave (1600 N.) would intersect Racine it's either in the river or in a Home Depot that's been there since well before 2004. I think this further strengthens the Jacobs Ladder theory that all of this is happening in his head and he's created this fictitious address that does not exist.

[Cam Bert 8145]

The tree in the middle of the house really needs to be talked about. It annoys me on multiple levels. First, they decided to make it a maple tree. There is nothing inherently wrong with that except for they pick a tree that on appearance alone clearly tells you the time of the year. Green leaves? Spring if they're small otherwise Summer. Red leaves? Fall. No leaves? Winter! So on a pure continuity level the tree is all over the place in the movie no to mention not always jiving with the time of year the story is suppose to be in.

 

Then there is just the ridiculousness of this idea of a tree growing through the house. First off in the wide shots of the house we see that the tree is not just in the house but the trunk of the tree goes down to the little wharf area below the house. This means the house at the wharf and in the flooring has to be build around the tree. This raises the issue of drafts and heat lost that comes from having to make space for the tree to be there. Then the biggest and most space consuming part of it, the top, is plopped into the center of the house. Not only does this take up valuable space, but seeing as this is a maple tree you are creating a nightmare cleaning scenario come fall or anytime a strong draft comes in. Also this tree cannot grow. The way the house is built the tree cannot grow because the trunk would grow too thick and ruin the flooring and it'd grow taller than the house. What they must have done it built a containing pot for it's roots below the wharf so it can no long grow yet still live. Then the kicker is there's the sun roof above it. You know what you call a glass house? A green house! I'm sure plants grow fine in them.

 

Then final kicker is that they try to tie the tree into Keanu's story about his father and how the design of the lake house reflects his controlling and distant nature. You don't need the whole father story in the movie at all really and even then the scene could play out the exact same without the tree! He could be describing something else about the house like "Glass walls, creating the illusion that you can leave and explore but you are contained inside where he wants you. Containment and control." Boom. Done. No need to have this tree which makes no sense in the middle of the house! A stupid, illogical, continuity ruining thing put there for the sake of one like of dialogue in a scene that could easily be cut.

 

Then again we wouldn't have gotten that lovely poem from earlier without it there.

[Cameron H. 23786]

The tree in the middle of the house really needs to be talked about. It annoys me on multiple levels. First, they decided to make it a maple tree. There is nothing inherently wrong with that except for they pick a tree that on appearance alone clearly tells you the time of the year. Green leaves? Spring if they're small otherwise Summer. Red leaves? Fall. No leaves? Winter! So on a pure continuity level the tree is all over the place in the movie no to mention not always jiving with the time of year the story is suppose to be in.

 

Then there is just the ridiculousness of this idea of a tree growing through the house. First off in the wide shots of the house we see that the tree is not just in the house but the trunk of the tree goes down to the little wharf area below the house. This means the house at the wharf and in the flooring has to be build around the tree. This raises the issue of drafts and heat lost that comes from having to make space for the tree to be there. Then the biggest and most space consuming part of it, the top, is plopped into the center of the house. Not only does this take up valuable space, but seeing as this is a maple tree you are creating a nightmare cleaning scenario come fall or anytime a strong draft comes in. Also this tree cannot grow. The way the house is built the tree cannot grow because the trunk would grow too thick and ruin the flooring and it'd grow taller than the house. What they must have done it built a containing pot for it's roots below the wharf so it can no long grow yet still live. Then the kicker is there's the sun roof above it. You know what you call a glass house? A green house! I'm sure plants grow fine in them.

 

Then final kicker is that they try to tie the tree into Keanu's story about his father and how the design of the lake house reflects his controlling and distant nature. You don't need the whole father story in the movie at all really and even then the scene could play out the exact same without the tree! He could be describing something else about the house like "Glass walls, creating the illusion that you can leave and explore but you are contained inside where he wants you. Containment and control." Boom. Done. No need to have this tree which makes no sense in the middle of the house! A stupid, illogical, continuity ruining thing put there for the sake of one like of dialogue in a scene that could easily be cut.

 

Then again we wouldn't have gotten that lovely poem from earlier without it there.

 

 

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!

[Cameron H. 23786]

I had the same thought as the gang, though. The moment that Paul Tabachneck brought up about Keanu trailing off and Sandy urging him to continue led me to be like, "WHAT THE FUCK? ARE THEY TEXTING?!" (Although that would STILL be weird texting behavior)

 

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.

[Cam Bert 8145]

 

 

Yes...but should I fuck this movie?

 

 

Let's me check my notes....

 

Yes. Fuck this movie.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

-So we're told Il Mare is the best restaurant in all of Chicago and it's so popular you need a reservation at least two years in advance. Yet Sandra Bullock is allowed to sit there all night and sulk?

 

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!

[JammerLea 2070]

I haven't watched this movie, but I just listened to the episode last night and wow, what even is this? I'm glad someone else brought up the movie Frequency, because while it's not amazing, it does a much better job playing with the concept of time traveling conversations and using those to the advantage of changing time.

 

Also, thank you Fister, for bringing up the issue of time loops, as that just is aaaalways a problem in time-altering stories. You change the future for a reason, then there's no reason to change it; back to square one lol.

 

Anyway, this ep was very enjoyable, and I loved reading through this thread! I hope Cam Bert still has more to say! I'm really looking forward to the minisode for this,

[tomspanks 9039]

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.

 

But at least in You've Got Mail, the couple uses IMs in addition to emails, so at least it's conceivable that the back-and-forth is an IM exchange.

 

So it seems we're at the BEC phase with this movie. Here's mine. I thought Keanu's dinner was really sad here. He heats up a very thin soup and as he dumps his soup into the bowl he says, "come to papa." I've never seen someone get so excited about a bowl of thin broth before. It's not even chowder, FFS. And he doesn't eat the soup right there. He spins around and places his bowl on that table with the setting for one. I don't know, if I was living alone, I'd be eating that soup right out of the pan to avoid dirtying a dish and a placemat. And his dinner is just soup and a Bud. Is he on a liquid diet? Does he have bad teeth? I felt really bad for him that he didn't even have a crusty piece of bread.

 

[MapleLakelander 33]

Alright, so I just had a very disappointing day for pictures. It's a beautiful morning, I had the sun behind me, I was the only person at the site (other than a forest ranger who probably thought I looked pretty suspicious pacing up and down the shore trying to find landmarks) but I came up completely empty-handed. When I got to Maple Lake, I walked down to the pier and then I looked really closely at the screengrabs I had of the movie. The pier that's standing today is on the same part of the shore SOME FIFTY FEET NORTH of the one constructed for the house. Furthermore, after scouring the internet for a precise location of the house, I came across an article that led me to believe the house was actually constructed over land which was then dug out to fill with water (pictured below: a production still showing the house under construction). This made it completely impossible to line up a good shot. Again, it bears repeating that the house was demolished after shooting because Maple Lake is part of the Cook County Forest Preserve District and filming was only allowed under the condition that the site was to be left as it was before construction. Also, after taking a look at the Willow Springs wikipedia page, I noticed that The Lake House is the only entry under the "Culture" section, which is the perfect indicator of how fucking boring this town is.

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

But at least in You've Got Mail, the couple uses IMs in addition to emails, so at least it's conceivable that the back-and-forth is an IM exchange.

 

So it seems we're at the BEC phase with this movie. Here's mine. I thought Keanu's dinner was really sad here. He heats up a very thin soup and as he dumps his soup into the bowl he says, "come to papa." I've never seen someone get so excited about a bowl of thin broth before. It's not even chowder, FFS. And he doesn't eat the soup right there. He spins around and places his bowl on that table with the setting for one. I don't know, if I was living alone, I'd be eating that soup right out of the pan to avoid dirtying a dish and a placemat. And his dinner is just soup and a Bud. Is he on a liquid diet? Does he have bad teeth? I felt really bad for him that he didn't even have a crusty piece of bread.

 

 

Obviously he needs a woman to take care of him...duh!

 

 

Sandy needs to quit her job doctoring and whip that boy into shape.

[tomspanks 9039]

Obviously he needs a woman to take care of him...duh!

 

Sandy needs to quit her job doctoring and whip that boy into shape.

 

Wait, if she's out in the living room, who is barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

Wait, if she's out in the living room, who is barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?

 

Where do you think Jack the Dog is?

[JammerLea 2070]

Alright, so I just had a very disappointing day for pictures. It's a beautiful morning, I had the sun behind me, I was the only person at the site (other than a forest ranger who probably thought I looked pretty suspicious pacing up and down the shore trying to find landmarks) but I came up completely empty-handed. When I got to Maple Lake, I walked down to the pier and then I looked really closely at the screengrabs I had of the movie. The pier that's standing today is on the same part of the shore SOME FIFTY FEET NORTH of the one constructed for the house. Furthermore, after scouring the internet for a precise location of the house, I came across an article that led me to believe the house was actually constructed over land which was then dug out to fill with water (pictured below: a production still showing the house under construction). This made it completely impossible to line up a good shot. Again, it bears repeating that the house was demolished after shooting because Maple Lake is part of the Cook County Forest Preserve District and filming was only allowed under the condition that the site was to be left as it was before construction. Also, after taking a look at the Willow Springs wikipedia page, I noticed that The Lake House is the only entry under the "Culture" section, which is the perfect indicator of how fucking boring this town is.

 

 

I love your posts jsyk

 

I grew up visiting and being on lake front property in the midwest and I've never seen a residential building built OVER the water, so I wonder how practical/durable this sort of structure is.

 

The picture above definitely shows a wall to keep out the water (I also see markings showing the presence of a previous water level on the posts under the house). But it really makes me question how they followed the rule for "filming was only allowed under the condition that the site was to be left as it was before construction", if they indeed had to dig out an area for the water to fill. I want to know more on how they built this thing lol

[Cameron H. 23786]

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?"

[tomspanks 9039]

Where do you think Jack the Dog is?

 

She's off to a different town to help another time-mismatched couples.

 

 

Speaking of Jack, whenever Sandra said Jack in this movie it reminded me of While You Were Sleeping, the far superior Sandra rom-com.

 

 

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

She's off to a different town to help another time-mismatched couples.

 

 

Speaking of Jack, whenever Sandra said Jack in this movie it reminded me of While You Were Sleeping, the far superior Sandra rom-com.

 

 

 

 

 

I love While You We're Sleeping!

 

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

just back from fast 8 and .... it's really boring.

 

there are some serious problems with it. i won't go into it now but it's a mess.

 

the last 30 - 40 mins are worth the ticket price but it was a slog getting there.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

just back from fast 8 and .... it's really boring.

 

there are some serious problems with it. i won't go into it now but it's a mess.

 

the last 30 - 40 mins are worth the ticket price but it was a slog getting there.

The biggest problem for me was how much fun it was and how much I absolutely loved it.

[Cameron H. 23786]

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.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

The biggest problem for me was how much fun it was and how much I absolutely loved it.

i'll have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. compared to the previous 3 ... it's a let down. there's loads to talk about but, at least for me, most of the talking points will be negative. maybe it will grow on me. i wrote abit more in the other thread. i'll say no more.

[tomspanks 9039]

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.

 

It was written by the human, Ib Melchior.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

It was written by the human, Ib Melchior.

 

Aww, fuck! Letterboxd/MST3K callback!

 

 

(You can be James Marsden.)

[IMAHUGEHDTGMFAN 1837]

i'll have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. compared to the previous 3 ... it's a let down. there's loads to talk about but, at least for me, most of the talking points will be negative. maybe it will grow on me. i wrote abit more in the other thread. i'll say no more.

 

I loved it as well, maybe you are only mad because Fister spoiled it in the Furious 7 thread

 

The 8th movie HAS to start with them having to break Statham out of that jail and being forced to work with him, right? Whatever they're fighting (alien hordes, let's hope), he's going to be the only person able to help them.

 

 

The only thing I hated was...

how they didn't mention Han AT ALL and how the team and Vin were cool with the Shaws in record time when 7 was all about avenging Han