Message in a Bottle - Der Beginn einer großen Liebe

The pace is set from the opening scene: the ocean with its consistent but gentle force splashing against the shore. `Message in a Bottle' follows this leisurely pace; it is not in a real hurry to give up all its secrets, but like the ocean, will surrender all in good time. So relax, and allow yourself to enjoy!

Paul Newman (Dodge Blake) and Kevin Costner (Garrett Blake) both deliver strong performances as father and son, initially content, though not really happy in their current existence. Both have lost their love, for one reason or another, and are each other's companion and support. Newman gets the fun punch lines, Costner gets the woman. `If I were about 150 years younger' starts one of Newman's lines – it must be different for him not to play the leading role. Costner seems right at home playing a ship-building sailor who is lost because of his lost love.

Robin Wright (Theresa Osborne) is equally strong, playing an independent and patient reporter, who follows her heart, and decides to find the author of the love letters from the ocean. She gives Garrett distance gently when he needs it, yet pushes back equally hard when she needs to.

Much of the acting relied not so much on the delivery of lines, as on the body language, on looks, on the strained silence between a couple who is unsure of each other, often unsure of themselves, yet strongly attracted to each other.

Both Garrett and Theresa seem to struggle at conversation, both uncertain of how to discover each other, yet each finding an attraction they can't seem to deny. Garrett is hanging on to the love he still feels for his wife, who died too early. Theresa is still recovering from a divorce, and the busy life of a single parent. Neither is sure they can be open to a new relationship, nor are they ready to say goodbye to something that is starting to feel so right.

The photography of the sailboats on the ocean were enough to bring out the romantic in me. What could be a more peaceful setting than a sailboat anchored privately in a small cove of the ocean in the Outer Banks?. We're given just enough peek into the unfolding world of a couple discovering love, without it feeling like an intrusion.

To talk more of the ups and downs would give away too many of the secrets that only the theatre, the bookstore, or the ocean will release.

How private is a message set afloat in a bottle? Not at all, according to this film. Finders keepers, and if it makes a good story, publish it on the front page of the daily press. Garret (Kevin Costner) loves Catherine beyond the grave, and being a boat-builder, with the sea at his doorstep, he sends messages to her in a sealed bottle. Theresa (Robin Wright Penn) relaxing by the sea finds a bottle protruding from the wet sand and is much impressed by the expressions of love in the romantic message. As a newspaper researcher she seeks out the author and predictably they fall in love. I think this film would largely appeal to women. The dialogue and the romantic situations are believable as the story slowly but steadily unfolds. The photography of the seascapes and sunsets is very appealing and the background music suitably romantic and never obtrusive. The acting throughout is very controlled. The shy Garret devoted to the memory of Catherine slowly changes as this new woman enters his life. Theresa still suffering from a broken marriage and still uncertain of her future is beautifully played as the message continues to weave its spell. Garret's crotchety old father is played with all stops out by Paul Newman - a rascally fellow with firm ideas about what is good for his son. There are a few noisy scenes in the film, and necessary, I think, because the overall tenor of the film is somewhat subdued with the two shy central characters. Not a great film by any means , but the story has a certain charm. I am sure we would all like to find a message in a bottle - much more exciting than receiving an E-mail - and I guaratee that, human nature being what it is, we'd read it too.

This is the movie that proves that most critics don't know what they're doing. The critics shed their sentimentalism sometime in the mid-1960's, so how could they know or care?

One must have a heart to enjoy "Message in a Bottle". It's a treasure--beautiful, poignant, tragic. The cast is wonderful, and if you don't cry at the ending, you aren't human (which most critics apparently aren't).

I think the ones that gave 1 to this movie are the ones that gave 10 to Doom. Otherwise there is no way that this movie can be rated as low as a terrible production such as Doom..

It is a story of a guy (Kevin Costner) that is stucked between living the past or looking for the future after meeting Theresa. It is a well acted love story the end of which is not signaled as some other argued!It is not a cliché at all.If someone claim otherwise, i would like him/her give me an example similar to this movie in plot.

I would recommend this movie to everyone for a nice evening! Watch it you will not be regretful.

I would normally avoid a film like this . I don't do romantic movies , especially overlong , Kevin Costner ones but I watched this because I'm going through the entire catalogue of Paul Newman films and unsurprisingly he is the best thing in this mushy , over sentimental chic flick .

A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness.

In a way , this is the best character Kevin Costner could play . I moody , withdraw , sullen man which basically sums up his acting style. Robin Wright does a decent job but you have to wonder what her character sees in a miserable man , fifteen years older than her who wears beige slacks and a cardigan!

It's worth watching this film along just for Paul Newman. In one of his last performances he steals the show as the dad . He still has that twinkle in his eyes that we are so used to seeing .

The plot is ridiculous as they do often are in these kind of films.

One scene where Therese knows that Garrett is going to stay over night , she just happens to leave the bottle and letters in the bedside drawer right next to him . That's just dumb script writing.

As with nearly all Kevin Costner movies it's at least 45 minutes too long and the merciful ending is just typical of a Mills & Boon type novel .

Thank god for Paul Newman.