Message in a Bottle is a 1999 American romantic drama film directed by Luis Mandoki and based on Nicholas Sparks's novel of the same name.

On a trip to Cape Cod, she finds a mysterious, intriguing and typed love letter in a bottle in the sand, addressed to Catherine.

His name is Garrett Blake, and he lives quietly on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, near his father, Dodge.

Along with the literal distance between them — they live hundreds of miles apart — there is another problem: Garrett cannot quite forget Catherine who died, leaving him.

Although devastated, Theresa comes back contented, stating that, although this experience left her in grief, it helped her to feel the most important thing in life.

Singer Richard Marx also composed the song "One More Time", sung by Laura Pausini, which played during the closing credits.

[3] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $18.9 million, finishing first at the box office, knocking Payback from the top spot.

The site's consensus states: "Handsome-looking but dramatically inert, Message in a Bottle maroons a formidable cast in a trite romance that lacks spark.

[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four, praising the lead actors, particularly Newman, who "steals every scene he's in", but criticized the contrived ending.

[9] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "dreary, lachrymose and incredibly poky tear-jerker", but conceded that it had a built-in audience among those who put the book on the bestseller list.