Message in a Bottle is a 1999 American romantic drama film directed by Luis Mandoki and based on Nicholas Sparks 1998 novel of the same name. It stars Kevin Costner, Robin Wright (under her married name Robin Wright Penn) and Paul Newman, and was filmed in Maine, Chicago and Wilmington, North Carolina. The film was released on February 12, 1999 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was panned by the critics but was a moderate box office hit grossing $118 million against a $30 million budget.

Plot

Theresa Osborne, a former reporter, works as a researcher for the Chicago Tribune. On a trip to Cape Cod, she finds a mysterious, intriguing and typed love letter in a bottle in the sand, addressed to Catherine. She is fascinated by it and shows it to her colleagues. They print it in their newspaper without the knowledge of Theresa and receive numerous responses. One of the responses contains an attached letter which was addressed to the same person and written in the same tone. Later, they receive another letter of the same kind from one of the readers which was not addressed to Catherine, but typed on the same notepad. Eventually, they track the author down with the help of the typewriter and the notepad used. His name is Garrett Blake, and he lives quietly on the Outer Banks of North Carolina near his father, Dodge.

Theresa goes to Outer Banks to research it further but when she meets him, they are attracted to each other and start becoming better acquainted. She tries to tell him about the original purpose of her visit but fears that she might lose him and postpones it. Along with the literal distance between them — they live hundreds of miles apart — there is another problem: Garrett cannot quite forgive Catherine for dying and leaving him.

Theresa s career flourishes as the romantic message in a bottle tale is told in print, without naming names. Garrett makes a trip to Chicago to visit Theresa and her young son. They seem very happy together for a day, but Garrett sees his letters, becomes upset, and starts to leave. But when Theresa reveals that there are three letters of the same kind, he becomes intrigued as he only wrote two of them and comes back to see another letter. The third letter, which was not addressed to Catherine, was actually written by Catherine; in that letter, she reveals her love, her knowledge of her impending death, and how she was content with her life with Garrett, however short it might be. Garrett leaves with the letter, leaving Theresa in tears.

Garrett moves on with his life and sets things straight with Catherine s family, who had been battling with Garrett for the artworks of Catherine. He finishes his own personalized boat with the help of Catherine s brother and names it Catherine in her honor, and sends an invitation to Theresa to visit. When Theresa goes there, she witnesses the passionate speech of Garrett about his late wife Catherine and understands that he still is in love with his late wife, and leaves him saying that he is welcome to call her when he thinks he is ready to start a new life.

After that night, Garrett writes a letter to Catherine and puts it in a bottle and goes sailing. A storm breaks out and Garrett desperately tries to save a family from a sinking boat and succeeds in saving two out of three; however, in the process, he himself drowns. Garrett s father Dodge calls Theresa and informs her about his death. Heartbroken, Theresa goes there to bid farewell; Dodge gives her a letter which was written by Garrett on the day of his death. In that letter, Garrett writes that he found someone else, Theresa who is as dear as Catherine to him and decides to start a new life with her, and asks for Catherine s blessing. Though devastated, Theresa comes back contented stating that though this experience left her sad, it also helped her to feel the most important thing in life.

Cast

• Kevin Costner as Garrett Blake
• Robin Wright as Theresa Osborne
• Paul Newman as Dodge Blake
• Susan Brightbill as Catherine Land Blake
• John Savage as Johnny Land
• Illeana Douglas as Lina Paul
• Robbie Coltrane as Charlie Toschi
• Jesse James as Jason Osborne
• Bethel Leslie as Marta Land
• Tom Aldredge as Hank Land
• Hayden Panettiere as Girl on Boat
• Rosemary Murphy as Helen at the B&B

Production

Filming

The producers originally planned to film on Tangier Island, Virginia, but the Tangier town council voted against allowing it due to the drinking, swearing and sex in the script.

Warner Bros. then tried Martha s Vineyard near Chilmark, Massachusetts, but the Chilmark Conservation Commission turned down a request to build a temporary 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) house on stilts in the dunes near Chilmark Pond.

Beach scenes were filmed at Popham Beach in Phippsburg, Maine. No filming was done at the Outer Banks (the setting of the novel).

Music

Irish music group Clannad wrote the song What Will I Do for the film. Singer Richard Marx also composed the song One More Time , sung by Laura Pausini, which played during the credits.

Reception

Box office

Message in a Bottle has grossed $52,880,016 in North America and $66,000,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $118,880,016.

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $18,852,976, finishing first at the box office, knocking off Payback from the top box office ($17,719,502).

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 32% rating, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site s consensus states: Handsome-looking but dramatically inert, Message in a Bottle maroons a formidable cast in a trite romance that lacks spark. Metacritic reports a 39 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating generally unfavorable reviews .

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, praising the lead actors, particularly Newman steals every scene he s in , but criticized the contrived ending. Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter called it a dreary, lachrymose and incredibly poky tear-jerker but conceded it had a built in audience among those who put the book on the bestseller list.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
1999	Stinkers Bad Movie Awards	Worst Actor	Kevin Costner	Nominated
2000	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actor – Drama/Romance	Kevin Costner	Nominated
		Favorite Actress – Drama/Romance	Robin Wright	Nominated
		Favorite Supporting Actor – Drama/Romance	Paul Newman	Nominated
		Favorite Supporting Actress – Drama/Romance	Illeana Douglas	Nominated
	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Actor	Kevin Costner	Nominated

Home media

Message in a Bottle was released on VHS and DVD on August 3, 1999.

Year	1999
ReleaseDate	1999-02-12
RuntimeMins	126
RuntimeStr	2h 6min
Plot	A woman discovers a tragic love letter in a bottle on a beach, and is determined to track down its author.
Awards	Awards, 6 nominations
Directors	Luis Mandoki
Writers	Nicholas Sparks, Gerald Di Pego
Stars	Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Paul Newman
Produced by	Kevin Costner,Denise Di Novi,Rose Riley,Leslie Weisberg,Jim Wilson
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Cinematography by	Caleb Deschanel
Film Editing by	Steven Weisberg
Casting By	Cathy Sandrich Gelfond,Amanda Mackey
Production Design by	Jeffrey Beecroft
Art Direction by	Steve Saklad,Mark Zuelzke
Set Decoration by	Dorree Cooper,Elaine O Donnell,CC Perkinson
Costume Design by	Bernie Pollack
Makeup Department	Gary Archer,Elle Elliott,Kathrine Gordon,Katherine James,Anne Morgan,Francisco X. Pérez,Monty Westmore,Scott Hersh
Production Management	Daniel R. Chavez,Todd Lewis,Mark Marshall,Mark Scoon,David Siegel,Forrest Sloan Wright,Bill Daly
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Gary Capo,David Hyman,Emily McGovern,Bruce Moriarty,Nick Satriano,David J. Negron Jr.
Art Department	Jonathan Askew,Todd Bennett,Nelson Bush,Randy L. Childs,Mike Cukers,Marc Martin Del Campo,Nancy Deren,Andrea Dopaso,Harmony Gosbee,Jeff Khachadoorian,Mark A. Mancinelli,John Mann,Masako Masuda,Larry Misselhorn,Alexander Sandy Nesbitt,Michael O Donnell,Jeff Ogg,King Orba,Kris Peck,Eugene Pope,Helen Rasmussen,Natalie Richards,Richard Robinson,Liza Rudolph,Kevin Sciotto,Jim Scott,Gregg Singer,John J. Slove Jr.,Theodore Suchecki,Timothy W. Tiedje,Robert Van Dyke,John Villarino,Mike Villarino,Peter Wilcox,David Brace,Michael Goss,Peter Letzelter-Smith,Cameron Matheson,Quentin Matthys
Sound Department	Paul Aulicino,Bob Beher,Lance Brown,David E. Campbell,Marc Deschaine,Michael Dressel,Bruce Fortune,Jonathan Fuh,Jessica Gallavan,José Antonio García,Lance Laurienzo,Steve Nelson,Jay Nierenberg,John T. Reitz,John Roesch,Gregg Rudloff,Bruce Stambler,Shawn Sykora,Bernard Weiser,Richard E. Yawn,Mark Johnston,Chris Pinkston,Carolyn Tapp
Special Effects by	Steve Bolan,Casey Cavanaugh,Alden Wayne Dumas,Scott Garcia,David P. Kelsey,Rodman Kiser,Ron MacInnes,Mark Noel,Michael Rifkin,Michael Roundy,Tim Walkey,Aaron Walters
Visual Effects by	Jonathan Alvord,Ted Andre,Shawn Broes,Erin M. Cullen,Charles Darby,Kimberly Spear Dixon,Kevin Elam,Gokhan Kisacikoglu,Karen Klein,Vincent Lavares,Gregory D. Liegey,David Lingenfelser,Craig Mathieson,Valerie McMahon,David J. Negron Jr.,Corinne Pooler,Liz Radley,Herbert Dwight Raymond IV,Brian Shows,Craig A. Simms,Thomas J. Smith,Amy Tompkins,Patrick Tubach,David Watkinson,Ronnie E. Williams Jr.,Tom Zils,Tim T. Cunningham,Kevin LaNeave
Stunts	Tricia Bonomo-Guertel,Lance Gilbert,Troy Gilbert,Norman Howell,Erik Rondell,John Rottger,Mark Vollmer,Paul Williamson,Glen Yrigoyen
Camera and Electrical Department	Jamie Barber,Alison Barton,Arnold F. Brown,Colin J. Campbell,Gary Capo,Chris Culliton,Jerry C. Deats,Paul DeMarte,Sean Devine,Michael DiIeso,Matt Floyd,Stefan Forbes,Ben Glass,Bill Greenberg,Barry Gross,Frank R. Jimenez Jr.,Eric K. Jones,Tim Metivier,James R. Mitchell,Michael Murray,Brad Peterman,P. Scott Sakamoto,Frank Scheidbach,Val Schubert,Sam Taybi,Joseph D. Urbanczyk,Chuck Whelan
Casting Department	Kevin Beard,Sally Jackson,Mercedes Kelso,Elizabeth Lang
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Marie Boller,John Patrick Doyle,Jorge J. González,Barbara Gordon,Sabrina Rosen,Rita Salazar,Nick Scarano,Nancy Smytka
Editorial Department	Samuel Craven,Jordan Dawes,Stephen Heslin,Gershon Hinkson,Bob Kaiser,Janet Ogletree,Herbert Dwight Raymond IV,Greg Dean
Location Management	Demetra Diamantopoulos,Pam Jack,Ilt Jones,Peter J. Novak
Music Department	John Bell,Mark Berrow,Richard Bissill,Michael Blakey,Nicholas Bucknall,Heather Cairncross,David Campbell,Peter Davies,Daniel DiPrima,Paul Edmund-Davies,Sarah Eyden,Andrew Findon,David Foster,Andy Hill,Tod Holcomb,Lisa Jaime,Allan Jenkins,Ling Ling Li,Everton Nelson,Jenny O Grady,Harry Rabinowitz,Robert Randles,John Richards,Georges Rodi,James Thatcher,Eric Tomlinson,Allen Walley,Kirsty Whalley,Gabriel Yared,Rachel Bolt
Script and Continuity Department	Karen Golden,Samantha C. Kirkeby
Transportation Department	Denise Avallon,Linda Cipperley,Alan Kaminsky,Robert Martini,William O Brien,Marty Radcliff,Jonathan A. Rosenfeld,Brian Steagall,Jeff Verdick,Richard Vincent,Robert Wallace,Kevin Wilson
Additional Crew	Judith M. Brown,Alison Cannon,Tami Cassell,Daniel R. Chavez,Alex Daniels,Michele Edison,Maureen Poon Fear,Richard Franceschini,Wendy Goldfisher,Rick Hicks,Arik Johnson,Renee Kitterman,Ross L. Kulma,Ernest H. Lauterio,Jim Lipman,Judy Malinoski,James Mitchell-Clyde,Stefan Nikolov,Ed Nyerick,Shaun O Banion,Darice O Mara,George Patterson,Bob Pitto,Burton Sharp,Matt Smith,Mark Thomason,Bill Vergos,Kirsty Whalley,Will White,Victoria A. Zamora,Don Dailey,Margaret J. Orlando
Genres	Drama, Romance
Companies	Warner Bros., Bel Air Entertainment, Tig Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.2
ImDbRatingVotes	38576
MetacriticRating	39
Keywords	letter,sex,grief,airport,mirror