Lucinda Williams croaks forlornly about a world without tears while sunlight radiantly burnishes the Autumnal hills. Enter Sissy Spacek who portrays a Hallmark heartland matriarch- stoic and strong. Add a son with problems with booze and wild women, a bratty kid, Dave Mathews (of The Dave Mathews Band) as a menacing drug dealer, and combine it all with a very murky and ominous family history. In an attempt to inject a degree of suspense into the narrative, a character in this film asks, "What's in that room?", and the answer is, "We don't go in there". Thus, viewers are guaranteed that a dark and mysterious family secret is about to be dredged up. Seriously, if you want to see how family secrets can be dealt with intelligently, check out, I HAVE LOVED YOU FOR SO LONG. In that film, they do it right. Even if you are a fan of melodrama, LAKE CITY strains too hard for just a few meager emotional revelations