I saw "Message in a Bottle" last night on DVD on a high definition TV in the wide screen version.
The biggest impact I can remember was of the scenic beauty of the ocean, beaches, sail boats, wooded areas, and other touristy things I like to see on vacation. Unfortunately, in between the scenic portions were inserted clips of Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn painfully trying to act and barely succeeding...
The story was one in which the viewer, as usual, must suspend their disbelief, as the happenings are far from likely to happen in the real world. I have no problem with that, as some of you already know, but I like a few interesting sequences in my films, too. This was all too rare in "Message in a Bottle".
The story is this: Penn is a "power-chick" on the staff of a major newspaper, the ace of the staff that gets to talk back to the boss in front of her peers. No smoking, jogging, great career, you get the picture. Sound like Richard Gere in "Runaway Bride? Wait, it gets worse... She finds a bottle with a note inside it in one of her solitary jogs. She wants to find out who would do such a thing... and the winner is:
Kevin Costner! a crotchety country guy who speaks about as much as a fish, according to his dad, played by Paul Newman. Newman, by the way, was one of the high points of this film, even though it was a bit part. Anyway, big city gal comes down to see if this guy, who she tracked down using the paper’s resources, is for real.
It turns out Costner is quite the artiste, with some really big boat skeletons half finished in his really big garage (or airplane hangar, I didn’t know which). He gave up when his first wife, the subject of the messages, died.
Penn and Costner predictably fall in love. When he finds out she tracked him down because of the messages, he hits the ceiling. They never meet again as he meets his untimely fate in the arms of the sea... in his pocket was another message in a bottle, this one for Penn.
Despite obvious plot rip-offs from "Runaway Bride" and "David Copperfield", I feel women would give this film high marks, as it has a high romance quotient. Unfortunately, I can only give it two stars as the talking got in the way of the scenery!
The story of a long distance love connection that is made when Penn a Chicago journalist discovers a love letter that Costner a widowed sailboat repai...More at Family Video
They got a second chance at the love of a lifetime. Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn star in this tender tale of a romance sparked by the discovery...More at HotMovieSale.com
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