Kevin Costner: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
4. Garret Blake - Message In A Bottle
Its a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Just from that alone, it is okay to be at least slightly skeptical. The story is about, you guessed it, a message found in a bottle. Theresa Osborne (Robin Wright), a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, finds the message while on vacation in Cape Cod. She loves the words of the message so deeply, that she tries to track down the man that wrote it. When the film begins, I actually found myself liking certain parts of it (especially good-old Paul Newman). Robin Wright was terrific as the leading actress, at least up until one point: when we meet Garret Blake (Kevin Costner) for the first time.
As a romantic leading man, Costner has had his wins (The Upside of Anger) and his fails (Rumour Has It). Hes a suave, handsome guy. Its the reason he is so often cast in these types of roles. But, when he tries so hard to be a hopeless romantic, as he does in Message in a Bottle, I just dont buy it. Behind his good looks, Costner probably just has too many hard edges to be a charismatic romantic lead. He's really more suited to play a character such as Denny Davies in The Upside of Anger. As I mentioned before, it is the flaws in this character that make us like him. In Message in a Bottle, his only flaw is his continued love for his dead wife. And he is never given a chance to overcome that.
Not only that, but this movie has one of the most depressing endings ever. When this first came out, I actually saw it back-to-back with a Nicolas Cage movie called City of Angels. Im surprised I was able to undergo such suffering at a relatively young age. What ever happened to the good old happily-ever-after?