Message in a Bottle (1999)
| Message in a Bottle (1999) |
| Cast: | Kevin Costner | Garret Blake |
| Robin Wright | Theresa Osborne | |
| Paul Newman | Dodge Blake | |
| John Savage | Johnny Land | |
| Illeana Douglas | Lina Paul | |
| Robbie Coltrane | Charlie Toschi | |
| Jesse James | Jason Osborne | |
| Bethel Leslie | Marta Land | |
| Tom Aldredge | Hank Land |
Review by Bret Walker
Message in a Bottle is a campy, touchy-feely film with a ton of Hollywood clichés in it. Here we see two people separated by half a nation (Chicago to North Carolina), who come together by fate, where one knows the circumstances of their meeting and the other does not. The one starts to tell the other, but is distracted and keeps the secret. The secret is later revealed and makes the second party angry that there was a secret. Feelings of betrayal abound. The second party heads back home, leaving the first party feeling pretty bad about themselves. However, true love conquers all, and in the end, they discover that it doesn't matter how they came together, just that they did come together somehow.
Does this synopsis sound like a couple dozen films released in the last ten years or what? I mean, does Hollywood think that putting blockbuster stars like Kevin Costner and Paul Newman on the screen merits the release of a movie that has the same old sortid story? A film like this insults the intelligence of the average moviegoer. We've seen this one before! Sure, it had different characters, different actors maybe, probably even a different director. But it's all the same formula, and I for one am getting tired of it. We meet, we fall in love, we fall out of love, we fall back in love. It's tired, and it's been done to death.
The only redeeming quality to this film is the fact that it does not have a typical Hollywood ending. I won't say any more than that. Otherwise, the story is predictable, the acting mechanical, and the cinematography, which could have been spectacular given the locations of the filming, were drab and uninspiring. There were, however, some spectacular sailing scenes. But flashes of brilliance like this were quite overshadowed by the rest of this poor display.
If you happen to be watching the HoBO channel when it comes on, and nothing better is on, go ahead and watch it. Otherwise, find something else to do. I wish I had.
Rating:
Trivia:
Links:
The Message in a Bottle website on Warner Brothers
A much more riveting version of Message in a Bottle (-;
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