Message in a Bottle (1999)
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A researcher discovers a mysterious love letter in a bottle and finds herself drawn to the grieving man who wrote it.
The story
Theresa Osborne, a researcher for the Chicago Tribune, discovers a typed love letter in a bottle while visiting Cape Cod. After her colleagues publish the letter, a wave of responses helps her track down the author, Garrett Blake. Garrett lives on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his father, struggling to cope with the death of his wife, Catherine. When Theresa travels to the Outer Banks to research the story, she and Garrett develop a mutual attraction. Despite their growing connection, Garrett remains haunted by his late wife's memory, and Theresa struggles with the distance between their lives and her professional motives.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Theresa Osborne, a Chicago Tribune researcher, finds a love letter in a bottle on Cape Cod. After the paper publishes it, she tracks the author to the Outer Banks, where she meets Garrett Blake. Garrett is grieving his wife, Catherine, who died of cancer. As Theresa and Garrett grow closer, Garrett visits Theresa in Chicago. However, he becomes upset when he finds her letters and eventually leaves. Theresa reveals there is a third letter, which was actually written by Catherine to Garrett, expressing her love before her death. Garrett leaves with the letter. Later, Garrett finishes a boat named Catherine and invites Theresa to its christening. During a speech about his late wife, Theresa realizes he is not ready to move on and leaves, telling him to call her when he is ready. Garrett then writes a final letter to Catherine, puts it in a bottle, and goes sailing. A storm hits, and Garrett heroically tries to save a family from a sinking boat; he saves two but drowns while trying to rescue the mother. Dodge informs Theresa of his death and gives her the final letter Garrett wrote to Catherine, in which he confesses he has found someone else—Theresa—and asks for Catherine's blessing to start a new life with her. Theresa returns home, grieving but feeling she has learned the most important thing in life.
- First release year
- 1999
- Runtime (minutes)
- 131
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Luis Mandoki
- Writers
- Gerald Di Pego · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Kevin Costner; Robin Wright; John Savage; Illeana Douglas; Robbie Coltrane; Paul Newman
- Genres
- romantic drama
- Themes
- Grief; Love; Widowhood; Romance
- Tone and mood
- Romantic; Melodramatic; Lachrymose
- Setting
- Cape Cod, Chicago, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the late 1990s.
- Premise and plot tags
- Based on a novel; Romantic Drama; Widowhood
- Source material / true-story basis
- Nicholas Sparks's novel Message in a Bottle
- Reception
- The film received generally negative reviews from critics but was a box-office hit, grossing $118 million against a $30 million budget.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 32% · review count: 38; Metacritic · score: 39 · scale: 100 · review count: 23
- Production trivia
- The producers originally planned to film in Tangier, Virginia, but the town council voted against it due to the script's content.; No filming was done at the Outer Banks, despite it being the novel's setting.; Beach scenes were filmed at Popham Beach in Phippsburg, Maine.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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