NewEnglandFilm.com

Had Jack Dawson survived the "Titanic," rather than Rose DeWit Bukater, he would have become Garret Blake, a sensitive shipwright, clad quite fashionably in cargo pants. He would have been sad, of course, until he met Princess Buttercup, also fashionably clad in rollneck sweaters. Buttercup would have issues of her own, following her realization that Westley had been far more charming than sincere.

Or so "Message in a Bottle" led me to believe.

This is a movie that irritated me. To say that it made me angry would be to afford it more credit than it deserves, but it came close. For that reason, and because I know of no other way to meaningfully discuss what makes it so flawed, I will be disclosing the movie’s ending in this review. Consider yourself warned.

"Message in a Bottle" details the romance between Garret Blake, a shipwright still grieving his dead wife, and Theresa Osborne, a newspaper researcher still grieving her failed marriage. They meet when Theresa (Robin Wright Penn) finds a message that Garret (Kevin Costner) wrote to his dead wife, put in a bottle, and tossed into the sea. The message is published in her newspaper, public interest is aroused, more bottled notes are found, and Theresa decides to find our nautical poet. She traces the typewriter, the cork, and the stationery, and is off to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. After Theresa meets Garret and his garrulous, elderly father (Paul Newman), romance ensues.

This most certainly is a romance, and Garret is a concoction straight out of a romance novel. Though sad, he is easily prodded into Theresa’s arms by his father. He is as strong and silent and sensitive as a man with highlighted hair can be. He is a man who loves to cuddle. When the time for sex does finally come, he performs in a giving and creative, and frankly overly explicit, manner.

Theresa, of course, is transformed by such a man. She learns about Honesty. She learns about Taking a Risk. She achieves her Dream of becoming a Writer.

These characterizations aren’t bad or wrong in and of themselves, and I must admit that I enjoyed seven-eighths of this film. The cinematography is gorgeous, and it’s easy to be lulled by the seaside locations; much of the movie was filmed in Maine, awash in a golden sunlight. Also gorgeous are Costner and Wright Penn, not to mention Paul Newman. Newman, whom I would choose for a romantic lead over Costner in a heartbeat, is thoroughly amusing, and his presence so picks up the pace that he makes the movie seem not to drag as badly as it otherwise does.

In point of truth, I have a predisposition against any movie in which Kevin Costner’s name appears above Paul Newman’s, especially when top billing really should have gone to Robin Wright Penn, as this is really Theresa’s story. But I’d recently seen "Bull Durham" on cable, and Costner was charming, and I thought I ought to give "Message in a Bottle" the benefit of the doubt. And in spite of Costner’s remarkably wooden performance, (his charm apparently only activates when he portrays a fallen sports hero), I was ready to put "Message in a Bottle" in the category of guilty pleasure.

Until the end.

You see, this movie is the story of how Theresa is transformed by her time with Garret, how she becomes a fully realized female character. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t allow a fully realized female character to walk happily ever after with her lover intact. Remember what happened to Rose’s Jack?

I took a course on Victorian Literature in college, and I remember studying Charlotte Bronte’s "Jane Eyre." Jane is feisty, supposedly a proto-feminist character, but she is unable to have an equal relationship with Rochester until he is blinded and maimed in a fire. Apparently, he got off easy. The subtext of the book was that a male character had to be somehow disabled to be in an equal partnership with a female character.

In Hollywood, anyway, the rule still holds. Aside from the fact that such a rule offends me, it made for a movie that disappointed me. I was denied the guilty pleasure of a romantic ending, of seeing Theresa and Garret sail off together, into the sunset. So I left the theater unfulfilled, annoyed that the movie described as redemption a woman’s agonizing loss. I did take with me a persistent nagging sadness, though probably not that which the filmmakers intended. Paul Newman’s performance had been so vivid, I felt remorse for the old man whose son had died.

For the film web site, go to http://www.message-bottle.com.