"The Lake House" Directed by: Alejandro Agresti Starring: Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Christopher Plummer, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Lynn Collins MPAA rating: PG (mild adult language, a bus crash) Running time: 106 minutes Best suited for: hopeless romantics who won't sweat the details Least suited for: minutia-pondering realists From the first tremulous flutter of guitars accompanying the pastel-tinged opening sequence, one realizes that "The Lake House" is destined to consume tissues by the fistful. The tagline is deliciously ambiguous: "How do you hold on to someone you've never met?" Even the marquee poster, with Sandra Bullock looking wistfully into the beyond and Keanu Reeves standing so pale and ghostly white behind her, acknowledges that the laugh-o-meter will barely budge on this one. Women will flock and most men will moan-and here's an embarrassing little secret.

I ate it up.

But first, another guilty admission. I'm a sucker for "time-tripping" flicks, those implausible, utterly unrealistic fables of lost loves and shattered lives transcending the boundaries of physics and reality in the name of finding happiness. Maybe it's because realistic love needs as much help as it can get-so what's wrong with a little chronological cheating here and there? And do be aware: "The Lake House" shamelessly cheats.

I unabashedly love films like "Frequency," "The Butterfly Effect" and "Groundhog Day." I'll even reveal a fondness for films like "Kate & Leopold" and (please, no nasty e-mails) "Somewhere in Time." If you disdain such romantic fantasies, read no further and catch "X-Men" instead. But if you're the type of filmgoer who sobs during the frozen-pond frolic in "King Kong" or sheepishly rents "Sleepless in Seattle" every Valentine's Day, then "The Lake House" will probably work nicely for you, too.

Think of this one as "An Affair to Remember" meets "Star Trek." Beam me down another Kleenex, Scotty.

"The Lake House" is one of those films that the less you know, the better you'll fare-so shun those "he-did-this and then shedid-that" reviews and go on blind faith. However, what you can know is this: Bullock plays Kate, a lonely doctor who moves from her isolated lakefront Chicago home and leaves a polite note for its unseen new owner. Reeves plays Alex, an unmarried construction worker/reluctant architect who moves into the empty house. (Critic's note: This is one of the most unattractive abodes you'll ever encounter. And while I'm digressing, "The Lake House" is a remake of the 2000 Korean film "Siworae." I suspect the Korean's lake house is much nicer.)

Alex politely replies to Kate's note-but seems puzzled by some of its details. Wrong date, for one thing. And Kate mentions the home's few peculiarities, which Alex can't seem to find. Upon receiving Alex's scribbled response, Kate is likewise perplexed, and in a series of bizarre (albeit very quick) realizations, both come to acknowledge that their lives are inexplicably "off" by two years. Kate lives in the now, Alex in the recent past. Somehow, this eerie phenomenon intrigues them enough to continuing writing back and forth (or rather, now and then), and they begin to grow closer, connecting on those ethereal levels that we here-and-now couples can't fathom. They even begin to fall in love. It's a bit like an Internet romance, only different.

Okay, I admit that two years apart isn't, like, centuries. And one certainly can ask why don't they simply get together in the now- that would be Kate's now-if Alex can manage to wait a couple of years. Well, they do try, and this is where the film gets interesting. Their attempts to meet occur in a reasonably logical manner (considering the circumstances), but two years' distance does have its distinct peculiarities. So the plot thickens.

"The Lake House" could have gotten goofy in so many ways, or unrealistic in so many more, but director Alejandro Agresti nicely manages to juggle cinematic tension with romantic fantasy, and the result is a thought-provoking and accomplished movie. Of course, if you haven't bought into the premise by now, it's just going to seem dumb. My advice? Go with the concept, sit back and enjoy.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock actually seem to like each other (remember "Speed?") and the chemistry helps drive "The Lake House" into the sniffly sublime. Yes, there are a good many questions that will remain unanswered and a great many people's lives will change (although they won't know it) because of Alex and Kate's letter-writing fury. But such is love's wake. And even though you think you know where this might be heading, many viewers will be surprised (delightedly or dejectedly I shan't say) where this happy-sad fable finally drops you off.

I'd like to tell you more, but I'm out of time.