Plot synopsis
Alex is an architect and the new tenant of a Lake House in Chicago. He corresponds by mail with the former tenant, Kate, who is a doctor.
Soon they discover that the Lake House mailbox is a portal sending their mail back and forth through time, as he is living in 2004 and she is living in 2006.
After many letters, they start to fall in love and decide to meet. He goes to a party where he knows her former self will be but finds that she has a steady boyfriend.
Her next letter suggests that he books a dinner table two years ahead, which for her is the following day. She goes, but he fails to show because she later realises he has died in the meantime.
She finds out how he died and warns him. He eventually gives up trying to find her and waits the two years, before they are re-united at the Lake House.
My comments
This is a Hollywood remake of the Korean film, Il Mare aka Siworae (2001).
Summary of time travel
Kate is able to save Alex’s life by warning him of the accident that will kill him. Her message is able to travel back through time and cause the timeline to diverge, so that Alex is still alive in her present.
His messages going forward in time are able to change her life in the present, thus causing the timeline to diverge again.
Category of time travel
Fantasy: finding portals.
Model of time
Open past, open future with a diverging timeline.
