The Magic Is Never Uncorked from `Message in a Bottle' by Homer Yen (c) 1999
I've always believed that what makes any experience most fulfilling and gratifying is our willingness to let down our defenses, allowing ourselves to risk humility and heartache for the sake of discovery. Especially with matters of the heart, I suspect that when you put too many parameters in place, love could sadly become more of an exercise rather than an experience. And herein lies what I thought to be the major drawback of `Message in a Bottle,' a film that seemed more like two people falling in therapy rather than in love.
One of the people is Theresa (Robin Wright Penn). Her job is fairly dry as she writes reports and conducts research for her big city newspaper. This career and her recent divorce seem to have sapped her sense of passion. But while walking along the beach one day, she discovers a bottle containing a letter. It is written so eloquently and romantically that it would be fodder for any Oprah show. Theresa is immediately overwhelmed by its tone and tenderness and begins an exhaustive search for the author of this message. Before too long, she hops on a plane to meet the writer whose words have affected her so much. It seems like such a crazy thing to do, but romance has a funny way of affecting one's head. Her destination is now a small fishing town on the Carolina coast, and the mysterious man that she'll try to find is named Garrett (Kevin Costner).
Garret is a lonely person who has recently lost his wife. He's quiet, somewhat withdrawn, and possesses an appealing boy-next-door kind of charm. Yet once they meet, something strange begins to happen (or not happen). Amazingly, very little chemistry develops between Theresa and Garret. The main reason is the way in which Penn's character is written. Theresa is constantly weighing facts and outlining action steps. Is that what love is about? `I wasn't sure where the boundaries were,' she states in one scene, or `where do we go from here,' she asks in another. Consequently, as both Theresa and Garret explore their feeling for one another, it seems as if the couple is going through a counseling session rather than laying the foundation for something wonderfully fulfilling. Additionally, as we learn more about Theresa and Garret, our involvement with these two characters becomes lopsided. Finally, I was practically caught off-guard (as if a huge wave crashed into me) when the film reached its ending, which seemed to literally come out of nowhere. Yet the overall performances were all very nice. Penn displays a good range of emotions as she looks for that unattainable love, which she might have found. Costner achieves a nice balance of possibly loving again tempered by his guilt in doing so. And Paul Newman as Garret's fiery, girl-advice-dispensing dad steals all of the scenes that he's in. I really liked the performances, but was waterlogged by the lack of direction and pep that the film seemed to be capable of given it's cutely orchestrated first 20 minutes. Whatever the filmmakers had intended for us, the message wasn't so clear.
Grade: C
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