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Review of The Lake House (Rachel Portman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if there is no limit to the amount of lightweight and pleasant Rachel Portman romance music you will purchase.

Avoid it... if Portman's predictable return the sound that made her famous in the 1990's leaves you as cold as Keanu Reeves' acting.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Lake House: (Rachel Portman) For people with inherently analytical minds, The Lake House is the kind of film that makes you want to run outside and scream. A metaphysical romance about two people who live in the same house on stilts in a lake is given a wave of the magic wand, or, more accurately, a magic mailbox. The two lead characters actually met on a bus with a bomb on it ten or so years ago, and if you can forget that funny circumstance between Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, then perhaps the rest of the premise of The Lake House will work for you. Their problem is one involving a time paradox, with both characters inhabiting the house at different times periods (two years apart) and able to communicate between each other only using the aforementioned mailbox. Logic tells us that two people stuck two years apart in that nasty little dimension called time will never intersect and have that silver screen kiss at the end of the film. Such a parallel paradox is the stuff of a "tear in the fabric of the space/time continuum" for Trekkies. But never mind that. And never mind that neither character does any background research on their mysterious otherworldly penpal. Never do they exchange anything other than written notes. One could have made the other a ton money at the horse races, too, but never mind any of that either. The ending was a little more downbeat when the story was first released as Il Mare in South Korea in 2000, but along with the sappy American ending is an equally lovely little score by composer Rachel Portman doing what she does best. While defining herself as a master of romantic comedy and light dramatic scores in the early 1990's, and gaining the accolades associated with her popularity of the time, Portman has made a significant attempt to branch out from the genre since 2000. Perhaps it's no surprise that she hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since, with her career including several failed attempts at action, thrillers, and other far more unconventional genres. In her romance writing for pleasantly appealing orchestral ensembles, The Lake House is a blatant return to her glory days in traditional style.

Fans of that readily likable romance style will be soothed by the extremely familiar Portman sounds of The Lake House. A pleasant title theme meanders through the score on piano and strings, stated in typical Portman beauty for the entire ensemble in the opening and closing cues. The rolling piano rhythms flow with the waves of the lake while the woodwind section flutters softly in the wind... It all seems so appropriate whether you've heard it before or not, and to her credit, Portman doesn't try to change an equation that works for this circumstance. The layers of strings, diminished role for brass, woodwind solos, and tender accents on harp are cookie-cutter Portman, and in scores like these, you almost do a better service analyzing the score in the ways that it is different rather than the same. There are surprises both ways in The Lake House, especially in what's absent. The most disappointing aspect of the score is that it has absolutely no sense of magic or mystery. Portman's best scores of the last decade exuded an atmosphere of the supernatural, sometimes through devious rhythms and usually through percussion. Given that we have a film about a magic mailbox here, it's extremely surprising just how sterile this score is, completely devoid of any the true spirit that Portman has infused into her best romantic comedies through the years. The resulting consistency in tone throughout The Lake House is easily its weakness, conceding the score's usefulness in the picture as only a bland supporting element regardless of its harmonic appeal. There are only a few slight moments of those faster Portman string rhythms that helped her classic scores move with style; they are replaced with a subdued acoustic guitar that helps the score gain some contemporary traction. Two tracks otherwise worth mentioning includes "Il Mare," obviously named after the previous film and featuring a solemn cello solo. The other is "Wait for Me," which ends with a striking moment of dissonance for the film's one tragic element. On album, five rock songs with styles from yesteryear are included (some might question the conveyed sound given the film's 2004-2006 setting), followed by about half an hour of score. Portman fans will find the score to be both familiar and pleasant, but the lack of the supernatural element in her overly conservative work here is disappointing.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 49:12

• 1. This Never Happened Before - performed by Paul McCartney (3:26) • 2. I Can't Seem to Make You Mine - performed by The Clientele (3:38) • 3. Time Has Told Me - performed by Nick Drake (4:26) • 4. Ant Farm - performed by Eels (2:13) • 5. It's Too Late - performed by Carole King (3:57) • 6. The Lake House (3:17) • 7. Pawprints (1:21) • 8. Tough Week (1:09) • 9. Mailbox (0:59) • 10. Sunsets (5:01) • 11. Alex's Father (6:46) • 12. Il Mare (3:00) • 13. Tell Me More (2:23) • 14. She's Gone (1:15) • 15. Wait for Me (3:02) • 16. You Waited (1:38) • 17. I Waited (1:41)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Lake House are Copyright © 2006, Lakeshore Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/16/07 (and not updated significantly since).