Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) lives in a house on a lake (an abode some people might call a "lake house"). As the film opens, Ms. Forster is saying goodbye to the house, as she is moving into Chicago to work in a hospital. She leaves a note for the new tenant in the mailbox. At the same time, we see would-be architect Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves) announcing his purchase of his own lake house. He gets there and finds Kate's letter, which mentions a set of pawprints on the porch and a box in the attic, neither of which Alex can find. He replies, saying that he didn't see any paw prints or a box, and, oh yeah, the date on her letter is wrong. His letter says 2004. Hers says 2006. Whoops! Looks like we got ourselves a classic time-twisting tenant-switching slapstick comedy on our hands.

Except we don't. We get a humdrum romance which is so lazy that not only do the main characters not question the warp in the timestream continuum, but neither does anyone else when either character mentions it. No one even finds it odd that the main characters believe it to be true. Kate's mom actually calls the difference in time "a small detail" in comparison to their larger relationship. This relationship unfolds through letters left in the mailbox of the lake house, and is heard mostly in voice over as if the characters were really talking to each other.

Even the courtship between Bullock and Reeves is lazy. They spend a few minutes talking to each other in voiceover, and afterwards they're both smitten. At that point, Kate begins to ask Alex to do stuff for her in the past that will affect her future (how Doc Brown would disapprove), such as retrieving items she's lost (yes, he's relegated to the role of errand boy). Kate and Alex actually do meet once in 2004, and Alex knows who Kate is, but Kate doesn't yet know who he is. Nonetheless, they have a moment. They then do the thing we've all been waiting for, which is to meet in Kate's time, but Alex doesn't show up. I don't want to spoil anything, but suffice it to say that the reason why is utterly obvious to everyone but Kate.

Now, there's really nothing wrong with this movie (except for everyone's immediate and utter acceptance of the basic premise), but there's not much to it, either. There are a few good scenes, such as when Alex scrawls graffiti on a wall in Chicago so that Kate will see it in the future, and a cameo from Nip/Tuck star Dylan Walsh, but the really good moments are few and far between. To the film's credit, there are no bad scenes, just perfunctory ones. The film has a good "What if?" scenario, but doesn't play around enough with the possibilities. And since it tried to go in the more conventional romantic movie route, it's hard to create any chemistry when your two leads only appear on the screen together twice. So while the film was certainly better than I thought it would be, all the roads in it lead nowhere.

The HD DVD:

The Image:
The Lake House is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, with VC-1 encoding. This was officially the first film to be released on Blu-ray, HD DVD, and DVD on the same day, and you'd think WB would have picked a higher profile film to highlight the differences between formats. As it is, The Lake House has some nice shots (generally of the titular house in question), but overall the transfer isn't very eye-popping. The film was clearly shot soft, to make both characters seem more romantic, and soft images just don't look so impressive on HD. The transfer itself is rock solid, though, without a speck of dirt to mar the print.

The Audio:
The aural pallette of the film is very subdued, so it's no surprise that the surrounds don't get much use in the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track. We see them used most on the score, a mix of symphonic and pop music. A few scenes, such as ones in restaurants or bars, fill up with chatter, but the focus is clearly on the dialogue. Considering the type of film this is, I see nothing wrong with that. Also included are French and Spanish dubs, both in 5.1.

The Supplements:
Again, for a disc that will go down in history as the first simultaneous BD/HD/DVD release, you think Warner would have lavished more attention on this. But no, we get a few deleted scenes, extended scenes, and outtakes, all in 480p, and the trailer in HD. That's all. This disc happens to be a combo disc, which I suppose someone might consider an extra.

The Conclusion:
Unless you're a huge Sandra Bullock or Keanu Reeves fan, there's not much I can recommend about The Lake House. Nothing about the film is overly bad, nothing about the film is overly good. It's a very milquetoast movie. Neither the audio nor video on this HD DVD are particularly stunning either, and with almost no supplemental features, this one is strictly a one-time viewing. Rent It

Daniel Hirshleifer is the High Definition Editor for DVD Talk.