Message in a Bottle (1999)
Directed by Luis Mandoki
A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness.
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What critics compared Message in a Bottle to
With “The Notebook,” “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember,” and the recent “Dear John,” Sparks has hit pay dirt, and it’s hard to blame the guy for essentially recycling the same elements of romance and doomsday to make millions from readers all over the world.
Just like "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle" and every other Sparks adaptation, "The Last Song" hews closely enough to the Sparks pattern of romance and bathos that tears will flow as copiously in the audience as they do on screen.
Nicholas Sparks has become a multi-millionaire by writing 18 American romance novels that refuse to underestimate the ignorance and innocence of those gullible readers, includingThe Notebook, Dear John and Message in a Bottle.
It’s an effective, get-out-your-Kleenex model, and the number of books it has powered has been nearly matched by the movie adaptations — “Message in a Bottle,” “Nights in Rodanthe” and “The Notebook” among them — it has inspired.
A couple of months ago, I was writing up my review of the melodramatic gumdrop known as "The Vow" and found myself in the faintly ridiculous position of offering a public apology to none other than best-selling hack author Nicholas Sparks, the creator of such shameless soapers as "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember," "The Last Song" and others.
The New Orleans-shot romance " The Lucky One " is, above all, a Nicholas Sparks movie, which -- ever since 1999's "Message in a Bottle" -- has become a Kleenex-devouring genre all itself.
The Lucky One is the latest Nicholas Sparks novel to make it to the big screen, following such heart-tuggers like The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, and most recently, 2010’s Dear John with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.
The author of such swoon-inducing pop favorites as "Message in a Bottle," "The Notebook" and "Nights in Rodanthe," Sparks gives readers the same warm-fuzzy appeal as a Thomas Kinkade painting, and numerous shots in the film seem to bear the late artist's touch.
Those who can appreciate it on either or both levels will find plenty to adore in the movie, just as in the Sparks movies Message in a Bottle , A Walk to Remember , The Notebook , Nights in Rodanthe , Dear John and The Last Song .
These women have seen Sleepless in Seattle at least four times each, but at no time in this film, even after the columnist prints the letter and thousands of Tribune female readers write in about how soft and gooey they got, does anyone mention how much all this is exactly like Sleepless in Seattle, which is sort of like going through the workday with Leonid Brezhnev propped in the corner of the newsroom and not mentioning that.
In its general premise of the widower who is eloquent in his bereavement and the woman who seeks him out because of it, the film is reminiscent of "Sleepless in Seattle."
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But I have to say, it's better than previous Sparks adaptation Message in a Bottle .
This Warner Bros. release follows "Message in a Bottle" as the second of the romantic novels of Nicholas Sparks to reach the screen.
Like Message in a Bottle , the other Sparks book made into a movie, A Walk to Remember aims for the tearducts.
"A Walk to Remember" is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks, also the novelist who wrote the romance "Message in a Bottle."
"A Walk to Remember" was adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks, who also wrote the waterlogged "Message in a Bottle."
Adapted from a novel by sap-master Nicholas Sparks ( "Message in a Bottle" ) and directed by the desperately uncreative Adam Shankman ( "The Wedding Planner" ), this is a movie that launches soggy spitballs of sentimentality in nearly every scene as in-crowd malcontent Landon (the blasé and insincere Shane West) falls for candied outcast Jamie (pop princess Mandy Moore ), in spite of her mousy brown hair and burlap sack wardrobe (it's hard to make Mandy Moore look dowdy).
In the reliably moist novels of Nicholas Sparks - The Notebook and Message in a Bottle - life is a beach, love shifts like a sand castle in a storm, and lovers don't know what they've got till it's gone.
Based on yet another Nicholas Sparks bestselling romance, the author who gave us "The Notebook" and "Message in a Bottle" (what is it with this guy and paper?), the story begins with a chance encounter on a South Carolina beach sometime in the late '90s when a handsome stranger, John, jumps off a pier to save a . . .
All one has to be is familiar with other adaptations of Sparks' oeuvre - "Message in a Bottle" (letters, the ocean, death), "A Walk to Remember" (young love, a single dad, cancer), "The Notebook" (poor troubled young man and young woman with wealthy parents, young love separated by a second man, house building) and even "Nights in Rodanthe" (letter writing, the ocean, death).
But if you’ve seen any other big-screen adaptations of Sparks’s novels - “Message in a Bottle,’’ “A Walk to Remember,’’ “The Notebook,’’ “Nights in Rodanthe’’ - you won’t be too shocked by the road “Dear John’’ travels, or where it winds up.
This time, the author of "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle," "Nights in Rodanthe," "A Walk to Remember" and this spring's "The Last Song" (starring Miley Cyrus) gives us John (Channing Tatum) and Savannah (Amanda Seyfried of "Mamma Mia!" and "Big Love").
"Dear John" is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose work has enabled such previous weepies as "The Notebook" and "Message in a Bottle."
The movie is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks , whose books inspired "Message in a Bottle" (1999), unloved by me, and " A Walk to Remember " (2002), which was so sweet and positive it persuaded me (as did Mandy Moore as its star).
Even more outwardly trite than the author's A Walk to Remember and Message In a Bottle, this story is about a beautiful, privileged Southern debutante falling in love with a young, earthy mill worker in the small town where she spends the summer of 1940.
The Notebook was adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember), which should automatically eliminate a large audience contingent — essentially every male, and any female who isn’t well-served by a weepy, ostentatiously sentimental sensibility.
Since it really has no bearing on the main portion of the story, it feels as though it was tacked on because Nicholas Sparks hit it big with one kind of story-where a confused man becomes stronger after the love of his life dies (he previously wrote "Message in a Bottle" and "A Walk to Remember")-and now finds himself in the position of trying to top himself with ever-more cruel acts of fate.
…in 1999 about the film version of Message in a Bottle, another one of his books, he also spoke about The Notebook with a great deal of enthusiasm.
And the trailers and commercial for this latest flick are cut exactly the same way that other ads were cut for those two titles and such other Sparks' weepies as "The Last Song," "A Walk to Remember," and "Message in a Bottle."
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Movies from Sparks’ books (Message in a Bottle, Safe Haven, The Notebook, The Lucky One, Dear John) have featured big stars (Ryan Gosling, Richard Gere, Kevin Costner, Channing Tatum, Julianne Hough, Rachel McAdams) and grossed close to $900 million.
The Choice marks the 11th film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, a prolific filmography that began with the Kevin Costner/Robin Wright weeper Message in a Bottle (1999) and peaked with The Notebook (2004; Noah and Allie forever!).
The bestselling novelist behind weepies such as Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Dear John and 2004’s The Notebook (now a fan favourite and probably his best flick), Sparks knows how to work that tear-jerking line between romance and tragedy.
The casting is classier than the actual films (Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, for example, or Paul Newman and Robin Wright in Message in a Bottle).
But it's usually the up-and-coming who find themselves wading through the treacle that Sparks has been boiling up for the screen since he began in 1999 with Message in a Bottle.Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Liam Hemsworth, Rachel McAdams and Zac Efron have all served their time.
Unless some fool is trying to pass off the rocky shores of Maine for the sandy Outer Banks of N.C. in “Message in a Bottle.”
American novelist Nicholas Sparks has (as of this review date) written and published seventeen novels, eight of which have been turned into movies beginning with "Message in a Bottle" back in 1999.
Nicholas Sparks has thoroughly tapped into the romance genre with his books, and seven – including Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and more – have been made into movies.
“Safe Haven” makes the eighth of author Nicholas Sparks’ wildly popular, fem-centric romance novels, including “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember” and “Dear John,” to get the big-screen treatment.
From “Message in a Bottle” to “Nights in Rodanthe,” that’s a formula that’s made Sparks rich.
We don’t know who she is or what crime she’s supposed to have committed, but again, if you’ve seen “The Notebook” or “The Lucky One” or “Message in a Bottle” or “The Vow,” you know: She didn’t do it; she’ll fall in love with Strapping Local; she will eventually explain herself with the phrase, “It’s not what you think”; and once a secret cache of poignant letters is uncovered, everyone will live happily ever after.