"Message in a Bottle" has everything a studio executive could want in a movie, including a best-selling source (Nicholas Sparks' novel), a talented cast and handsome settings. Everything except the right leading man, that is.
Admittedly, Kevin Costner might have been the right choice a few years ago. But nowadays he's become an albatross that's helped lead his share of cinematic ships to their doom.
And in this romantic melodrama, Costner can't conjure up a warm enough presence to even justify being in the movie. Instead, he drains some of its precious energy and detracts from otherwise fine performances by his co-stars, Robin Wright Penn and Paul Newman.
In fact, despite the huge age difference, you might find yourself rooting for those two to wind up together instead of the film's more obvious pairing of Costner and Wright Penn, who simply don't have much chemistry together.
She stars as Theresa Osborne, a researcher for the Chicago Tribune, whose life is changed when she finds a bottle while on vacation at the ocean. Inside is a typed message, a love letter to a woman named Catherine, signed simply, "G."
The passion of the letter stirs something within the lonely divorcee, and when she returns home, she uses her journalistic resources to discover the author's identity — a search that takes her to North Carolina and to Garret Banks (Costner), a sailboat builder.
As it turns out, Garret wrote the message (and others) as a way to resolve his feelings about the death of his wife. However, he still continues to grieve for her, which is a source of contention between Garret and his father (Newman), who is convinced his son should be with Theresa.
Where the story goes from there may catch audiences off-guard, and it recalls the plot of one of last year's hits a little too closely. Also, while there is a constructive message about recovering from grief, it is obscured by distracting subplots and the customarily unwelcome notion that sex equals love.
But it is a beautifully photographed movie (cinematographer Caleb Deschanel also shot "Fly Away Home" and "The Natural"), and both Wright Penn and Newman are earnest enough to make you care about their characters.
Still, Costner plays Garret in such an aloof manner that it's hard to understand why Theresa would want to be with him.
And it's hard to feel completely good about any movie that so wastes character actors Illeana Douglas and Robbie Coltrane (who have thankless supporting roles).
"Message in a Bottle" is rated PG-13 for profanity, some fist fighting and simulated sex.