Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Robin Wright Penn seems to be pining for Helen of Troy's job recently. In Forrest Gump she played Jenny, the drug addict after whom the lovestruck Forrest names his shrimp boat. In her newest film, Message in a Bottle, she is the inspiration that prompts a man who thought he'd never know love again to rediscover his passion for the ocean. With these two roles, Wright Penn becomes the face that launched... well, two cinematic ships, anyway. Only 998 more to go, Robin!

Wright Penn also gives an enchanting performance that's one of the few genuine pleasures in this movie, a plodding, dreary work that never really seems sure of its bearings. It missteps badly and frequently, giving us one interesting set-up after another, then cheerfully relegating them to the background any time the film threatens to get too interesting. I can picture screenwriter Gerald Di Pego sitting at his desk, ticking off items on his checklist as he worked on the script: "Have I included a fist-fight scene? Check. A sex scene? Got it. The mandatory 'false dawn,' in which one of our protagonists rejects the other's affections for no particular reason? Yep. A death whose only purpose is to generate involuntary weeping from the audience? Most definitely!"

Theresa Osbourne (Wright Penn) is a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. She's a hard worker, but longs for love in the wake of an unpleasant divorce. While vacationing at the beach, she comes across a glass bottle, partially buried in the sand. Inside is a love letter so eloquently written that she burns afire with questions about the unknown author. "Dear Catherine," the note begins. As Theresa continues to read, she learns of a heartbroken lover who has lost his wife and can find no purpose in his existence without her. Theresa is haunted by the writer's story, and upon her return to Chicago she shares the letter with her co-workers at the Tribune. Charlie (Robbie Coltrane), her editor, decides to run the letter as a human-interest story ("This is bigger than the low-fat muffin scandal!"). Much to everyone's surprise, other readers fax in similar letters, also found on various beaches, seemingly written by the same author.

Theresa puts the pieces together and eventually identifies the heartsick lover as Garret Blake (Kevin Costner), a resident of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Deciding she has to meet this remarkable man, Theresa pays him a visit. No points for guessing that a romantic relationship soon blossoms between them.

And that, in a nutshell, is the biggest problem with Message in a Bottle: there are no points for guessing anything. This is strictly a formula love story, never deviating from the tried-and-true clichés that grace so many romance-oriented films. Why, for example, does Theresa not reveal to Garret that she knows about the letters he wrote to Catherine? Because otherwise there could be no scene in which Garret discovers the truth for himself. We'd miss out on the requisite teary argument in which Garret tells Theresa how hurt he feels over being deceived, and we wouldn't get to see him walk out on her, a crisis that's necessary so the couple can get back together again in the final act. You know the drill.

A bit of advice for the filmmakers: if you are fortunate enough to have Paul Newman in your movie, don't waste him. Newman plays Dodge, Garret's cantankerous father, who projects a personality of grit and nails but has a wise heart underneath. Newman is in fine form here, imbuing his character with humorous mannerisms and the fortune-cookie wisdom that all cinematic dads instinctively possess. He's far more interesting than Garret (a subplot involving Dodge's possible alcoholism is never developed as fully as it deserves to be), and that's another problem: Dodge is such a joy to watch that the movie plods when he's not on the screen.

The film has a moment about fifteen minutes from the finale that would be a perfect place to end this tale; it seemed like such an obvious stopping point that I actually reached for the stop button on the remote control. But no, the story has an unnecessary quarter-hour tacked on after it, which only serves to capsize the preceding 120 minutes and render them completely invalid. It's one of the worst endings I have ever seen, because it serves no purpose other than providing a cheap (and emotionally manipulative) climax. Patch Adams fans will love it.

Message in a Bottle is all over the map. The film makes much of the fact that both of the characters are searching for someone to be their emotional compass; their "true north," so to speak. Unfortunately, the movie needs its own sense of direction. As it stands, we have a classic case of the blind leading the bland.


Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV