Romance

Drama

Message in a Bottle

Warner Bros. Pictures

Bel Air Entertainment

Tig Productions

Di Novi Pictures

United States of America

English

Kevin Costner

Robin Wright

Paul Newman

John Savage

Illeana Douglas

Robbie Coltrane

Jesse James

Bethel Leslie

Tom Aldredge

Viveka Davis

Raphael Sbarge

Rosemary Murphy

Steven Eckholdt

Susan Brightbill

David Paris

Patricia Belcher

Elizabeth Guindi

Jennifer Lamb

Hayden Panettiere

Richard Hamilton

Walt MacPherson

Lance Gilbert

Norman Fessler

Mauricio Ochmann

Caleb Deschanel

Steven Weisberg

Jim Wilson

Gerald Di Pego

Luis Mandoki

Denise Di Novi

Gary Archer

Erik Rondell

Jeffrey Beecroft

Leslie Weisberg

Norman Howell

Nicholas Sparks

Michael O'Donnell

Gabriel Yared

Kevin Beard

David Siegel

Diane Warren

_**Enjoyable, but contrived, love story with some very puzzling questions**_

While on vacation in the Northeast a researcher for the Chicago Tribune (Robin Wright Penn) finds a romantic message in a bottle that is truly moving. After her editor prints the letter it becomes a hit and she travels to North Carolina to find the man who wrote the message (Keven Costner). Paul Newman is on hand as the latter’s father while John Savage plays his angry brother-in-law. 

"Message in a Bottle" (1999) is an entertaining drama/romance with quality actors and East Coast locations. Unfortunately, parts of the contrived plot are too much of a stretch and some seriously perplexing questions are raised that I can’t detail without spoiling the movie for first-time viewers. Write me and I’ll share them with you.

Thankfully, there’s too much good to write the movie off as worthless. For instance, there’s a well-done subplot that has to do with manly antagonism and reconciliation. The average male has too much machismo to voice sappy apologies, but they clearly apologize & reconcile in less direct ways. Just read between the lines.

When Theresa asks Garrett, "Will you come and visit me,'' Roger Ebert complained about the (supposed) lousy writing of the latter’s response: "You mean, inland?'' I guess he failed to notice that Garrett had a smirk on his face and was playing with Theresa wherein she giggled.

Some people complain that the film was shot in Maine while the story takes place in The Outer Banks, North Carolina, which looks nothing like Maine and insults the intelligence of the viewer. In the producers’ defense, they tried to shoot in a couple places further south, but couldn’t get permits and so had to settle for Maine (Bath, New Harbor, Phippsburg & Portland). Yet the coastal scenery isn’t much of a focus, so it’s not that big of a deal. If it really bugs you, just imagine that Garrett throws the bottles into the ocean in Maine and Theresa finds the initial message while vacationing in Nova Scotia; problem solved.   

The film runs 2 hours, 6 minutes, and was shot in Maine and Chicago, plus some stuff done at Falls Lake, Backlot, Universal Studios, Southern Cal.

GRADE: C

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Message in a Bottle

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Cast

Kevin Costner

Robin Wright

Paul Newman

John Savage

Illeana Douglas

Robbie Coltrane

Jesse James

Bethel Leslie

Tom Aldredge

Viveka Davis

Box office

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