Message In A Bottle

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 an $80 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 get 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 furious 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 fighting with Garrett for the artworks of Catherine. He finishes his own personalized boat with the help of Catherine's brother and names it 'Catherine', 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 to save two out of three; however, in the process, he himself drowns. Garrett's father Dodge calls Theresa and tells her about his death. Heartbroken, Theresa goes there to say goodbye; 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 blessings. Though devastated, Theresa comes back contented stating that though this experience left her sad, it also helped her to feel the most important thing (Garrett when he died) in life.