Episode 160 - The Lake House: LIVE!

[Smigg 1488]

Since Paul announced the movie, I kept on thinking it was 28 Days. When he described it, I said to myself, "Oh, it'll be 28 Days". When he said "We're doing The Lake House", I still wouldn't have it, I just thought "That's weird, they call it The Lake House, why don't they call it 28 Days like we do here?!"

 

Then I searched "The Lake House" on Netflix, and 28 Days popped up, and I thought "Ha! Stupid Paul! I knew it was 28 Days!"

 

Turns out, 28 Days is actually a different movie... FIVE STARS!

[Cameron H. 23786]

According to a quick Google search, Madison, Wisconsin is nearly 2 and a half hours from Chicago. Are we to believe that Sandy B was constantly driving 2+ hours to get to the Lake House to snail mail text a single line to Keanu?

I wanted to point this out too... it's insane that she's doing that much driving. How many times is she visiting the lake house a week? That is some dedication to drive all the way there to hangout by a mailbox for a little bit, get some one liners going back and forth, and then drive home 2+ hours.

 

While I think it would have been easier had they just come up with a place that's a little bit closer, if I were ever to come across a magic mailbox that allowed me to communicate with someone in a different time, I think I might be willing to make the drive--especially if I started developing feelings for the person with whom I was corresponding. I don't think I'd be like, "I guess it's cool that this utterly insane, physics defying, supernatural phenomenon is happening, and you do seem like a really nice guy that I would love to get to know better, but...the drive is killing me!"

[anogueira87 8]

My head hurt trying to understand the timeline of The Lake House. I think the problem is that the time travel in this movie makes no sense if we think of time as a linear function, that is, going forward in a straight line, from X to Y. Unlike Starlee, I refuse to rewatch this movie and go through the mental anguish again. Therefore, after several rounds of mental gymnastics, I've decided to think of Keanu and Sandra as ants traveling on opposite sides of a Mobius strip.*

 

 

On one side of the strip is the Keanu ant living in 2004 and the other side is the Sandra ant living in 2006. We, as the more sentient viewers, can see they are both traveling on the same loop, but Keanu and Sandra are just dumb ants who think they're traveling in a straight line in one direction. They're a couple of dumb insects who can't perceive the extra dimension (the loop). The mailbox is the tiny wormhole that opens a hole through the loop and the ants can pass notes to each other to the other side. They happen to be traveling at different speeds and sometimes if they look up, they can see the other ant. How do they get together in the end? One of the dumb ants loses its footing (I dunno, maybe he trips on the seam) and falls down to the other side and they share a gross kiss.

 

*Or a Klein bottle?

 

 

 

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...stuff.

[kateacola 2440]

 

While I think it would have been easier had they just come up with a place that's a little bit closer, if I were ever to come across a magic mailbox that allowed me to communicate with someone in a different time, I think I might be willing to make the drive--especially if I started developing feelings for the person with whom I was corresponding. I don't think I'd be like, "I guess it's cool that this utterly insane, physics defying, supernatural phenomenon is happening, and you do seem like a really nice guy that I would love to get to know better, but...the drive is killing me!"

You're right, but then (like they said in the ep) she could've tried looking him up in her time. Like she expects him to meet her at that restaurant in the present, and gets upset he doesn't show (he has a pretty good excuse..being dead at the time).

 

I understand if she wanted to get to know him more before meeting him. But once they come up with the plan to meet for dinner...She could have googled him or attempted to find him herself? And cut out the mailbox once she realized she wanted to meet him. She would have also been able to figure out he was the one who got hit by the bus sooner.

 

And too, in the end of the movie when she finds out it was him who was hit by the bus...maybe I'm wrong...but was she in Chicago at that point? Did she have to rush and drive 2+ hours to write the letter to warn him?

 

Also, by then she had been ignoring him and not writing back.. if she hadn't written him for months (or more) would he still be checking the mailbox that often? He wasn't living there at that point either--and probably would have to drive a distance to check in on the mailbox? I was surprised she was able to warn him.

 

(I could be wrong with him not living there, while watching, the timelines got me fucked up-lol. But I don't think he was since he gave the keys to the lakehouse to Morgan to have Kate live there)

[MattGnosisLoxley 64]

I don't think this got mentioned in the episode, but right before "The Sneeze" as she's writing the letter warning about the snow and everyone getting sick, Sandy B takes out a photo of herself playing in the snow in March 2004. She shows it to Jack and says "Remember that day? You were not happy", as if she owned Jack then. But we see Jack is living with Keanu at the lake house in March 2004 when it snows. So either she is just presuming what Jack's mood was two years before she owned her, or Jack is omnipresent.

 

JACK.

 

IS.

 

GOD.

 

is Jack having a ruff day?

[tomspanks 9039]

Where are my Girls watchers at? Did you notice that Keanu's little brother was Desi?

 

 

 

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

On the subject of Keanu's charity on the Matrix films, I believe two different stories are getting conflated. While he may have forgone his profit-sharing stakes to allow for additional flexibility in the special effects budget, not donating money out of his own pocket, what he DID do was buy motorcycles for some of the stunt team that worked on Matrix Reloaded. I'm not sure how many motorcycles (I've heard anywhere between six and twenty so who knows), but he is also very generous with his charitable giving and frequently gives up his back end money to help productions (eg. in order to pay Al Pacino's salary in Devil's Advocate). So Keanu all the way. He's so generous that there are urban myths about how generous he is.

 

John Wick 2, amirite?

[Bumpy 1674]

Those were some excellent second opinions that I could not disagree more with.

[demagog_dog 50]

[grudlian. 4725]

I'm only part way through this but I'm very glad Jason and Paul admitted up front that they cried during this. I'm ashamed to admit that I also got kind of teary eyed for this.

[tomspanks 9039]

On the subject of Keanu's charity on the Matrix films, I believe two different stories are getting conflated. While he may have forgone his profit-sharing stakes to allow for additional flexibility in the special effects budget, not donating money out of his own pocket, what he DID do was buy motorcycles for some of the stunt team that worked on Matrix Reloaded. I'm not sure how many motorcycles (I've heard anywhere between six and twenty so who knows), but he is also very generous with his charitable giving and frequently gives up his back end money to help productions (eg. in order to pay Al Pacino's salary in Devil's Advocate). So Keanu all the way. He's so generous that there are urban myths about how generous he is.

 

John Wick 2, amirite?

 

That's neat. Too bad it was before Keanu co-founded his own motorcycle company. They're really cool looking bikes.

[kateacola 2440]

I don't think this got mentioned in the episode, but right before "The Sneeze" as she's writing the letter warning about the snow and everyone getting sick, Sandy B takes out a photo of herself playing in the snow in March 2004. She shows it to Jack and says "Remember that day? You were not happy", as if she owned Jack then. But we see Jack is living with Keanu at the lake house in March 2004 when it snows. So either she is just presuming what Jack's mood was two years before she owned her, or Jack is omnipresent.

 

JACK.

 

IS.

 

GOD.

 

And sorry if this was mentioned in the ep and I didn't realize / forgot.. but in the movie she is the one who tells him the dog's name is Jack... and Keanu, once he reads Sandy's letter, says "Hello Jack" and the dog acknowledges the name.

Shouldn't Keanu be telling her what the dog's name is ?? since he had the dog first?

[AdamDriggers 58]

So this story begins (For Keanu’s character) in 2004 in the month of February according to the events of the film. It’s Valentine’s Day in 2006 when Sandra sees the car accident so that means Keanu (experiencing the same day two years prior) is also in mid-February—but in 2004. Well this makes the film more confusing. We see that they are basically experiencing the same day every time they interact with the mailbox and the tree etc. (They say it’s the same day but in a different year at one point.) BUT 2004 WAS A FUCKING LEAP YEAR! February would have had a different amount of days for each of them. At a certain point instead of showing up right away the replies to Sandra’s letters should show up a day later right? Because they end up being 2 years and 1 day apart at a certain point right? Ugh... I guess the writer/s of this film didn’t think about that. I’m more confused, honestly, by the motivation for either character to fall in love with the other? A few letters? Are they that lonely? These are good looking, gainfully employed people…

[AdamDriggers 58]

Honestly, I feel like Keanu faked his death in this movie. She doesn't recognize the body of the dead man, because it wasn't actually him, but was identified as him through wallet or something. His family thinks he's dead when she talks to them but Keanu meets up with her later so he was alive in that timeline. Maybe he was in hiding and that's why he couldn't call her or meet up with her on reservation day.

 

That's the only way this makes sense to me.

 

I think its clear that until Keanu changes the timeline, they have never met. So when she saw the accident she had no memory of him yet, he implanted that memory like he did the tree.

[tomspanks 9039]

And sorry if this was mentioned in the ep and I didn't realize / forgot.. but in the movie she is the one who tells him the dog's name is Jack... and Keanu, once he reads Sandy's letter, says "Hello Jack" and the dog acknowledges the name.

Shouldn't Keanu be telling her what the dog's name is ?? since he had the dog first?

 

It's Schrodinger's dog.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

I'm only part way through this but I'm very glad Jason and Paul admitted up front that they cried during this. I'm ashamed to admit that I also got kind of teary eyed for this.

 

I got abit emotional at the end when she fell to here knees as she was waiting to see if he had been hit by the bus again ... or for the first time???... but that was either from Sandy acting the crap out of the scene or the fact that my brain hurt so much

[SaraK 1980]

And by then she had been ignoring him and not writing back.. if she hadn't written him for months (or more) would he still be checking the mailbox that often? He wasn't living there at that point either--and probably would have to drive a distance to check in on the mailbox? I was surprised she was able to warn him

 

(I could be wrong with him not living there, while watching, the timelines got me fucked up-lol. But I don't think he was since he gave the keys to the lakehouse to Morgan to have Kate live there)

 

From what I can tell, the only two people that lived there were our two main characters. So, when he drives up to check the mailbox, is he barging into a house that she's currently living in? Or that she's recently abandoned? How long did she live there and what's the gap from when she left to when she came back? Because he could have just stuck around there.

 

I think its clear that until Keanu changes the timeline, they have never met. So when she saw the accident she had no memory of him yet, he implanted that memory like he did the tree.

So she kissed someone else at that party?

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

I wish June had been there. I would've loved to listen to her try to make sense of it.

 

Glad to know God is a dog and a woman.

 

I still didn't watch this movie. I thought I would this week but then I thought I'd just watch John Wick instead. I think I win.

[NundercoverBrother 174]

OT: Breaking News:

F8 of the Furious: Thank God this got made!

[Smigg 1488]

Remember, if the 8 turns on its side to form an infinity, they've ripped that off from me on this very board.

[NundercoverBrother 174]

Remember, if the 8 turns on its side to form an infinity, they've ripped that off from me on this very board.

I wouldnt call any lawyers or wait by the mail box for any checks or letters from Sandy Bullock.

Because they dont do that.

[Smigg 1488]

I wouldnt call any lawyers or wait by the mail box for any checks or letters from Sandy Bullock.

Because they dont do that.

 

Don't care about that, just being safe in the knowledge that that shit was mine.

[Cameron H. 23786]

the audience members nailed it at this recording. the "why didn't she just bring the mailbox with her?" comment made me feel like a right dummy. why didn't i think of that. and then there was the attic comment ... he was spot on ... where the hell is the attic???

 

 

Full disclosure: I haven't listened to the episode yet, so if I'm repeating anything they've already said, I apologize.

 

The problem I have with the "take the mailbox" scenario is it's extremely likely that that might fuck everything up. Nothing says that the mailbox is the source of all the magic (The movie is called The Lake House, after all, not The Mailbox). For all we know, the house (or the dog) is the magical object and the mailbox is simply a conduit. Think of it like a television set. The mailbox is like the screen, and the house, dog, lake, etc. are all the other working parts. If you remove the screen from the rest of the television, it's not going to work anymore.

 

So while removing the mailbox might sound like a good idea, it could also mean severing that connection permanently. When faced with an anomaly like a postal time portal, I think a more scientific approach might be more appropriate than just ripping things apart.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

a couple of things:

 

Keanu planted the tree outside Sandra's half built apartment block ... if you look at the image the pavement (you guys call it the sidewalk) hasn't been built yet. It's just mud. So the construction company who are spending millions on the new building just left the tree there? Right in front of the building? They built the pavement around it knowing that as it grows it would block the windows? That thing would be in the skip before tea break .. plus it's a pretty dick move by one architect to spoil the final vision of another architects project like that

 

 

 

and then there's the graffiti .. it was there for 2 years and nobody posted anything over it? And it didn't fade? It's not like he could come back and top it up or clear posters off it ... cause he's dead.

 

[The Human Target 34]

My current theory is that the Lake House is a prototype for the glass mansion from the movie Thirteen Ghosts.

 

 

In that movie a glass mansion is created that traps, you guessed it, 13 ghosts inside.

 

The ghosts are being used to power a machine that pierces the veil of time, allowing the user to see the past, present, and future.

 

My hypothesis is that the Lake House was originally created by the villain of that movie as a trial run for his evil plan.

 

When Keanu is killed in the accident, his ghost becomes trapped in the Lake House which powers a prototype of the ghost machine.

 

But because he is only a single ghost, it only allows for very specific time travel through a wormhole in the mailbox.

 

Which lets him save his own life by arranging for his past self to fall in love with Sandy Bullock.

 

I think I'm going insane.