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Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
If you're an incurable romantic, this is the love story you've
been waiting for. If you're a cynic, this one's not for you. Based on
Nicholas Sparks' book, adapted by Gerald DiPego, lushly photographed by
Caleb Deschanel, and directed by Luis Mandoki, the plot revolves around
two lonely people. Robin Wright Penn plays a divorced single mom who
works as a researcher for the Chicago Tribune. While on vacation
alone in Cape Cod, she finds a bottle containing a beautiful, poetic love
letter from a man to a woman named Catherine. The signature is simply
"G" but she tracks down the sender. He's Garret Blake - a.k.a. Kevin
Costner - a sailboat builder who lives on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Since the death of his wife Catherine, he has led a sad, solitary
existence - until Penn appears, literally, on his doorstep. Inexplicably,
she doesn't tell him she's found his missive in a bottle. She's scared
of being honest, afraid to trust. So she pretends she's just
a tourist interested in sailing, and they begin a gentle, tender romance,
complete with moonlit marshmallow fights, while the audience waits for
the inevitable confrontation scene in which he discovers the truth and
turns on her. Handsome, smiling Paul Newman, as Dodge, Costner's sassy,
caustic, irascible father, deftly steals the picture, in one scene
muttering, "If I was about 150 years younger, you'd be in trouble, young
lady." Indeed, he has far more charm than Costner , who balefully
underplays an underwritten role. Is it cliche-ridden, maudlin and
manipulative? Without question, particularly the conclusion. Will you
cry? Undoubtedly. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Message in a
Bottle" is a sweet, hearts 'n' flowers 6. Spun-sugar mind-candy for
Valentine's Day.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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