The Lake House (released in Australia as The Magic Postbox) is a 2006 American fantasy romance film directed by Alejandro Agresti and written by David Auburn.

She leaves a note in the mailbox asking the next tenant to forward her mail and explaining that the painted pawprints on the front walkway were there when she moved in as was the box in the attic.

Two years earlier, architect Alex Wyler moves into the same lake house and finds Kate's letter, which confuses him since he doesn't see any pawprints.

While he restores the house, he befriends a dog who one day runs through paint, leaving the paw prints referenced in Kate's letter.

On Valentine's Day, 2006 for Alex, he recalls Kate's mentioning Daley Plaza and hurries to the lake house to retrieve their letters.

The scene where Henry and Alex talk on the street after being in their father's office was filmed on the 400 block of South Michigan Ave, in front of the Fine Arts Building and the Auditorium Theater.

[11] Reviewing for AllMusic, Thom Jurek wrote that Portman "nails it once more" with her use of "elegiac strings and impressionistic piano" to match the "soft" seasonal scenes and "subdued tones in the film's frames", the "relatively low-key performances" of both leads, and the "languid changes" of the plot, noting that the theme of longing present in the film "is used as an almost painterly device to hold the music inside".

Jurek cited the composer's "use of space in allowing a cello to unravel in the lyric line" on "Pawprints" and "Il Mare" as a "beautiful device for revelation".

[9] Brian McVicker of Soundtrack.Net also gave the album a favourable review and rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that the "song[s] and score work well in conjunction with each other, keeping a consistent tone from start to finish".

The site's critical consensus states: "The plot of The Lake House is a little too convoluted, and the film fails to pull off the sweeping romance it aims for.

[16] Roger Ebert gave the film its most positive review—he rated it 3.5 out of 4 stars—and felt that it succeeded despite being based on the impossible paradoxes established in the plot, saying that what he responded to was "its fundamental romantic impulse [that] makes us hope these two people will meet somehow".

He praised Bullock and Reeves in their respective roles, noting that a "great deal depends on the personalities involved", and called both "enormously likeable".

Echoing similar sentiments to Ebert, he noted that the film falls apart if "approach[ed] with a rational, skeptical mind", but felt that Auburn's script and Agresti's direction "smoothly handled" the "contrivances of the plot".

[18] Conversely, Claudia Puig, writing for USA Today, said that The Lake House was "one of the more befuddling movies of recent years", and felt its premise "made no sense, no matter how you turn it around in your head.

[19] She further called it a "melodramatic romance" that "moves at a glacial pace" while also "tak[ing] itself too seriously", and concluded by saying that "Even if we suspend disbelief completely, The Lake House is unconvincing, unsatisfying and unmoving".

[19] Stax of IGN described the film as a "terminally slow, talky and surprisingly uneventful affair" that "never capitalizes on the magic that brings Kate and Alex together".

[20] The OC Register's David Germain called the film a "tear-jerker whose convolutions elicit more chuckles than tears" and said it "would have been nice" if the DVD had included "commentary from the filmmakers so someone could explain the ridiculous lapses in logic" in response to its containing seven deleted scenes.