The Lake House - Watch & Discuss

This is such a good winter movie. One of the big themes of the film is loneliness, with the letters that Alex and Kate write to one another serving as a link to another human being. Both end up being shaped by death and they find comfort in each other.

It totally had me thinking back to Klaus' conversation with Stefan about the letters and loneliness. Even Caroline commented on the fact that Klaus' snowflake looked lonely.

Alex has a touching conversation with his brother, Henry, where he talks about the lake house that their father, Simon Wyler, built. How leaving the tree in the middle of it was about containment and control of nature. Ultimately, Alex says that their father building the lake house they way he did was a statement about wanting "ownership, not connection."

I think that in some ways Klaus built his mansion on those same principles. He says on one hand that he built it for him and his family and yet it was really was about his wants, his desire for them to live up his expectations. It all fits in with his obsession with HIS hybrids. They don't mean anything to him unless they are under his influence and control.

Eventually, Simon Wyler became a famous architect and his obsession with work drives his wife away. After leaving him, she gets sick and dies. Alex wants to forget and forgive his father for how he responded to her death and how he wrote her off when she left him:

"She was dead to me the moment she stepped out of the house."

Once again this reminded me a bit of Klaus' reaction when Rebekah destroyed the blood bags. Klaus has an unforgiving streak similar to Simon's and does not tolerant others disappointing him.

Other Klaus connections I saw:
- Kate dismisses her birthday. "It is just time passing," while Klaus, on the other hand, views birthdays differently.
- Simon talks about how the light is different in Barcelona, Tokyo, and Prague and how a good architech "knows that if he wants presence he must consult nature." It sounded as though Simon had an appreciation for beauty and travel just like Klaus. Alex, given the fact that he is an architect as well, shares in his sense of beauty and takes Kate on a tour of Chicago despite the fact they are communicating two years a part.

And lastly, another major theme of The Lake House is waiting. The book, Persuasion, plays a key part in the film. Alex is willing to wait for Kate, he has faith that they will find each other in the future. For me, this mirrored Klaus's speech to Caroline about her showing up at his door.