Thoughts about The Lake House, Soulmates

We watched this movie, The Lake House, on DVD last week. It stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

Plot: A lonely doctor (Sandra), once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its former resident, a frustrated architect (Keanu). What’s extraordinary about the story is that Sandra’s time is 2006, Keanu’s 2004, but still by some sort of magic were able to correspond in real-time and the two fall in love.

I’ve read lots of negative reviews about the movie saying the plot is ludicrous, lots of nonsense, illogical, incredible, cheesy, corny, and insultingly dumb. Pretty sure it was a flop.

However, I must admit I did quite enjoy watching it. Probably it depends on how one chooses to interpret the details. If one interprets the story literally, then yes, it is incredibly hard to believe. However, if one interprets it figuratively or metaphorically, then it's easier to appreciate what the director may have wanted to convey.

For instance, for the house by the lake, one may think of it methaphorically and not a physical address. It could be virtual, imagined or even an address in cyberspace. In the movie, Sandra and Keanu exchange letters magically via a physical mailbox. Yes, that’s hard to believe. Yet nowadays, it's ordinary to receive emails in our inboxes in almost real-time.

The two-years gap between the two lovers could symbolize age difference. Or the director’s way of conveying how two people can be in love even when it is impossible for them to unite physically. Impossible maybe because of present circumstances beyond their control, or because of events that transpired in the past and affected the present.

Oh well, like the movie or not, I simply think of it as the story of two soulmates finding each other no matter what.

Speaking of soulmate, is there really such a thing? Are there souls literally fated to be mates to each other?

When we think of a soulmate, we normally associate the term to someone’s true love, or someone that affects another person in a positive, loving way. But checking Wikipedia, I found out that it is possible for a soulmate to also inflict injury to their twin flame.

Soulmate Emotional Destruction Theory

Ultimately the consequence of this notion is the unfortunate reality that soulmates often possess the ability to inflict serious emotional injury unto their twin flame, greater than any other being could. This often results in the separation of idealized love, due to the severe emotional impact. Many soulmates are destined for an eternal search, not for lack of meeting, but rather lack of acceptance. The encounter is often analogous to the collision of matter and antimatter, a violent explosive reaction will occur, but if held through to completion only pure energy, and thus harmony, will result. Unfortunately few encounters are held through to completion. - Wikipedia

I thought that was quite interesting. Whatever the case maybe, I’m sure of one thing. I’ve found my soulmate.