FILM REVIEW: Message in the Bottle (1999)

Luis Mandoki (director) & Gerald DiPego (screenplay)

IT is not often that a movie works better than the book it is based on, but Message in a Bottle is a case in point.

I happened to catch the end of this film when it was shown on television a few Christmases ago. It struck me then that I had probably missed a very special movie. It’s only recently, though, that I got around to obtaining it on DVD. I confess I’ve watched it several times now. The film lingers on my mind long after the credits have rolled and moves me more than I can say. The ending is so unexpected, it never fails to shock.

The story of a love found and lost is told with far greater poignancy and effect on screen than it is in Nicolas Sparks’ novel of the same name. The book, in my view, is too drawn out and dilutes the impact of the plotline. I have always considered Kevin Costner an actor of real quality and talent. One can count on the films in which he chooses to star as being superior to so many more mediocre ones hitting cinema screens today. Here he is perfectly cast as the soft-spoken grieving widower, Garret Blake, still desperately pining over the loss of his wife two years earlier. Theresa Osborne, played with a wonderful sense of vulnerability by Robin Wright Penn, is researcher/columnist at the Chicago Tribune. Her life changes forever the day she finds the message in a bottle whilst jogging along a beach on Cape Cod. The beautiful message addressed to ‘Catherine’ moves her deeply and she sets out to discover more about its author.

Theresa’s research leads her to St. Clare, a small town in North Carolina, where Garret (author of the message) has a boat building and restoration business. Both have been scarred by love before – Garret still lives with Catherine’s shadow whilst Theresa is recovering from a painful divorce. They struggle with conversation, finding an attraction they cannot deny, but are uncertain of themselves and uncertain of how to discover each other. The inner torment both characters feel is almost tangible. Neither is sure they can be open to a new relationship, nor are they ready to say goodbye to something that is starting to feel so right.

Paul Newman almost steals the show as Garret’s cantankerous, but endearing father who is probably dealing with demons of his own.

The gorgeous scenery in which this movie is set, together with the dreamy quality of how some of the scenes are shot only add to its beauty and ensures its timelessness in the archives of romantic drama films.

21/02/07