I was browsing our local thrift store when I spotted a couple of DVDs which I hadn’t seen, and which looked interesting. One of them was the 1999 film ‘Message in a Bottle’. As the film was on special offer I had to agree that I wouldn’t complain if it was faulty, and paid my 50 cents. We decided to watch it last night - and what an amazing film it turned out to be!
Theresa (Robin Wright) is the main protagonist. She works as a researcher for a newspaper in Chicago, and has a young son though she’s divorced and his father has remarried. I’m not quite sure of the point of the sections involving the son, as they’re not really relevant to the story other than, perhaps, establishing Theresa’s character and situation as a single mother.
Out for a run along the beach, she comes across a bottle with a message inside. It’s a beautifully written love letter, to someone who has left them, signed just “G”. Theresa is moved by this, and also intrigued, and she takes it in to work to show some of her colleagues. One of them decides to print it, although she did not want to, and this leads to a huge amount of correspondence, including someone mentioning another letter written in the same style.
Theresa’s colleagues become more and more interested and involved and eventually track down the person who must be the author of the letters, and Theresa persuades her boss to allow her to fly out to meet him. She finds herself in a boating village, and gets to know Garrett (Kevin Costner), the person who wrote the letters. She learned that his wife Catherine died a year earlier, and that he’s still grieving. He’s also in major conflict with her relatives, who blame him and want some of her paintings…
It’s a beautifully made story, with excellent casting. The two main characters have excellent chemistry, and there’s ongoing tension as Theresa keeps putting off telling Garrett what originally brought her to his village and it’s inevitable that he will find out at some point. But possibly my favourite character is Garrett’s father Dodge (Paul Newman) who is frustrated with his son, but also utterly committed to him - and full of wisdom. There is a very poignant scene between the two.
It’s not all poignant, however. There are some light-hearted scenes in the newspaper offices, which made us smile. And there are some delightful sequences as Garrett and Theresa realise how much they like each other. I had hopes that it would end happily, but although some issues are solved it was basically a very sad movie, albeit with a hint of encouragement at the end. I understand it was based on a book of the same title by Nicholas Sparks, but the film was so good I don't think I necessarily want to read the book - and that's unusual for me.
We were absolutely gripped by this film, which was thought-provoking, moving, and extremely well-made. The rating is 12 which I feel is right - there’s quite a long scene of intimacy, but it’s implied rather than explicit, and there’s also a very tense, difficult scene to watch in a storm. I don’t think the storyline would appeal to anyone younger than about fourteen or fifteen anyway.
But for adults and older teens who don’t mind a film with a bittersweet ending, I would recommend this very highly.
The only extras on this DVD were some deleted or extended scenes, which were interesting to watch but we agreed that the film was perfect as it was, and these extras would not have added anything.
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