Get Keanu a Digital Planner

OK. I went to see "The DaVinci Code" last week. It was a pretty good thriller (but to be honest, if you didn't see it with the ladies I saw it with, you were missing a lot--there was a lot of extra 3-D dynamic action). But the thing that's still bothering me a week later is the preview for "The Lake House."

Help me out here. What am I missing? Two years--doesn't that seem like chickenfeed to even your average unrequited lover? And they're even in the same place--it's not like he has to walk the earth in iron shoes or anything, the dude just has to stand still for a while (my knight in shining sweatpants, holding his trusty cable remote). Or, if he has a life, he has to plan carefully and be back in two years. I mean, I understand your day planner might only go out to next September, but we had computers two years ago. Keanu is an architect who should be able to work Outlook (or, in a pinch, slip a note into his project management software--"Why look, my gantt says my building should be finished and I have to meet Sandy Bullock at the lake")?

It's as if the filmmakers saw "Somewhere in Time" on some Lifetime Movie Network tribute to Christopher Reeve and said, "wow, that's a cool concept, but they could have saved a lot of money on period costumes if it were only a two year difference instead of sixty." (Take note, Keanu--Christopher Reeve crossed a whole sixty years and wore a very silly hat to win Jane Seymour. You don't even have to cross the street.)

Seriously, though, I hope he has a good excuse. Something classy. None of that "I got hit by a cab" garbage a la "An Affair to Remember." And he can't be dead, either--it's a delicate balance--he has to be alive but credibly prevented from turning up in a way that isn't reminiscent of "While You Were Sleeping" and doesn't make him a jerk. And I hope the movie manages to catch that special moment where, "Gee, I hope nothing awful happened to him" turns into "Gee he's late--something awful should probably happen to him." Sandra Bullock's probably far too nice to think anything too horrible, but that moment can still be quite cinematic.