Day 169: Il Mare

Two lonely people find comfort in the letters they send to each other and they become quite close. However, they live two years apart and so must communicate via a mailbox.

The fact that they are existing two years apart and yet can still talk to each other isn’t the main focus of the film and the characters themselves barely even mention it. The important thing is that these two people were brought together and didn’t feel quite so lonely anymore. They become close quite quickly and share intimate thoughts and feelings almost right away. It’s as if they’ve both been waiting for someone who they feel comfortable enough to have these kinds of conversations with. The fact they are so separate from each other perhaps helps them to feel more secure about sharing. It’s almost like it’s safe to discuss things because of the physical distance. When they decide to meet and they’re both looking forward to it, it doesn’t happen. It’s almost as if that’s not how it’s supposed to be, it’s like they’d only work with that distance.

I was really loving the film until the end. Such a bad ending and it just totally invalidates everything that came before it. I think I’ll just pretend the last couple of minutes didn’t happen. Also, who else didn’t know that The Lake House was a remake of this film? I’ve not seen the remake so I have no idea how it stands up to this but I’ll assume that it must lose some of the romantic subtlety of the original. 

7/10