Stars: Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, Paul Newman, John Savage, Illeana Douglas, Robbie Coltrane, Viveka Davis, Rosemary Murphy, Raphael Sbarge, Bethel Leslie, Tom Aldredge, Jesse James, Richard Hamilton

Director: Luis Mandoki

Summary: The story of one woman's search for the man who placed a passionate love letter in a bottle and sent it out to sea. Finally tracking him down she begins a love affair with him. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.

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 repairer, let drift into the ocean. She quickly tracks him down and an honest bond forms between the two. When he discovers that she hasn't been entirely honest with him, the betrayal threatens to ruin what has been, so obviously up to this point, a wonderful, romantic thing.

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If, as they say, you're in a certain mood, Message in a Bottlecan be just the ticket. Based on Nicholas Sparks' bestselling novel, this handsome but overly calculated romantic tale stars Robin Wright Penn as Theresa, a Chicago Tribuneresearcher who finds a note encased in a green bottle that has floated onto a Cape Cod shore. The message within is a heartfelt, yearning declaration of love to a woman named Catherine but the author is unknown until Theresa (rather improbably) tracks him down in North Carolina. He's Garret Blake (Kevin Costner), a taciturn builder of sailboats and a grieving widower whose late wife, poetically speaking, was the intended recipient of the seafaring note Theresa found. Theresa, a divorcée with a son, decides to meet Garret, only to find him as bottled-up as his message. Nevertheless, a romance blooms on the strength of quality time in a sailboat and lots of cuddling, though the script tosses in bits of conflict to keep their relationship spicy. Directed by Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman), this love story is entirely by the numbers, with Costner inhabiting (rather than performing) a stock fantasy of a man perfect in every way save his broken heart. Penn brings more vibrancy to her equally predictable part but fortunately for all, Paul Newman, John Savage, Robbie Coltrane and Illeana Douglas are on hand in nicely textured character parts. Sometimes predictability is exactly what one wants when settling in for an evening of home video, and this movie fits the bill nicely. The appealing cinematography is by ace cameraman Caleb Deschanel. --Tom Keogh

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Additional Scenes, Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentaries
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, English, Romanian
Year:	1999
Release Date:	October 18, 1999
Runtime:	126 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 016989
Keywords:	General, Wide, Screen, Romantic, Message, Drama, Bottle
Genre:	Drama