Message in a Bottle (1999) Critic Reviews

On paper, the movie sounds unbearably schlocky, but Costner plays Garret the reluctant backcountry prince as mythic but also foxy and life size.Read the full review

It's not a great film, but it succeeds in being both tender and cathartic.Read the full review

At least this movie has flashes of humor, thought nearly all come courtesy of Newman. [12 February 1999, Life, p.8E]Read the full review

The climactic events are shameless, contrived, and wildly out of tune with the rest of the story. To saddle Costner, Penn and Newman with such goofy melodrama is like hiring Fred Astaire and strapping a tractor on his back.Read the full review

An exceptionally good movie in its first hour and an exceptionally bad one in its second.Read the full review

It's love with tragic complications, and director Luis Mandoki drags the torture out for two-plus hours.Read the full review

The result is exposition overkill and a dragged-out finale that turns what should have been a Tear Duct Special into a deflating experience, making what worked in the book unacceptable on the screen.Read the full review

Garret is played by Kevin Costner, who should avoid all future roles that call for overalls and goggles and who this time crosses the line from teasingly laconic to stodgy.Read the full review

Plays like an inflated Harlequin romance.Read the full review