Director Luis Mandoki created the film Message in a Bottle based on Nicholas Spark's bestseller novel. The entire creation of the film from the novel was a regrettable mistake. The film destroyed Spark's storyline. Watching the film and actually reading the book are completely different experiences. The film follows the basis of Spark's plot but it makes changes that ruin the suspense of the story. The changes the director and writer of the film made were absolutely ridiculous.
The experience of reading the book Message in a Bottle does not even compare to the experience of watching the film. The novel begins when Theresa, the main character, is going on her daily jog. She is on vacation in Cape Cod to get away from her busy life as a research journalist in Boston. The novel elaborates on Theresa's thoughts. She had recently had a divorce and she could not stop thinking about the life she once had. She missed having the comfort of a man being around the house. As Theresa is jogging on the beach she spots a shiny rock in the ocean. Then, she realizes that it is not a shiny rock at all, but a bottle. Memories flood back to her. She remembers when she was a child that she sent a bottle out hoping someone would write her back. She realizes that the letter was not her own. The message inside the bottle was addressed to someone named Katherine and simply signed by "G". The novel reads "She read the letter that would change her life forever" (Sparks 10). In the novel I felt as though I grew close to Theresa and I felt sympathy for her loneliness. When she reads the letter it is the most romantic letter about how a man misses his "Dearest Katherine" and how he wishes he could see her again (Sparks 11). The message in the novel is a tearjerker. On the other hand, the film destroys the entire feeling that Nicholas Sparks tries to give the reader; the message from the bottle in the film is completely different from the one in the novel (movie). The message read in the film does not even sound romantic! The film opens with Theresa going on a jog and immediately finding the message in the bottle on the beach. The audience does not get any insight into Theresa's feelings about life at the moment. Theresa's discovery of the message is not as exciting as watching it on film as it is when reading the novel. The film begins with almost no excitement at all, while the book intrigues the reader and almost forces the reader to go on.
In the novel Theresa contemplates over whether or not she should print the message in the newspaper she works for. Although, she knows the message is someone else's business she feels as though other women should be able to read such a romantic letter to a long lost love. So, she finally decides to print the letter. In the film, Theresa's boss prints the message from the bottle without her consent. She becomes furious and argues with her boss. The film tries to build a thicker plot by forming animosity between Theresa and her boss, which the book does not have, but in the end the film fails to reach out to the audience like the novel does. Theresa receives responses from the letter printed in the newspaper from women all over the state. Theresa finds a second letter signed by the same writer, "G" through the responses she receives. She then does some research to find the third letter. The third letter mentions the Outer banks, which is located in North Carolina. Theresa becomes very interested with the mysterious writer so she tries to find out where he is located. The methods each media source uses to locate the mysterious writer are completely different. The film's method is completely absurd. Theresa and her co-workers first find out what kind of typewriter typed the message and where it was sold. That is honestly the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Then, by some miraculous scientific method, her friend, who works for a newspaper might I add, figures out how long the bottle had been in the water. I cannot understand how these irrelevant details help to find the mysterious man's location. They finally "discover" where the writer lives by researching the logo of a ship found at the top of every letter. Theresa locates the shop that makes the logo, which claims that each customer designs his own logo. So, she finds out that the person who designed the ship logo was Garrett Black. The research done in the film reminds me of a children's detective story. None of the methods seemed plausible enough to actually work in reality. In the film, Theresa is then immediately prepared to fly over to North Carolina and meet the romantic writer. Her boss gives her a hard time and contends that she will be wasting her time. In the novel, Theresa finds out that the romantic writer teaches diving lessons over in the Outer banks, so she calls the number and asks about the instructors. The man mentions the name Garrett Black and says that he is one of the best instructors. Theresa automatically realizes that Garrett is the man she was searching for. In the novel, Theresa feels as though it is silly and childish of her to fly over to another state and find a man she only knows through letters. She does not have an argument with her boss in the novel as she does in the film. The film directors probably chose to have Theresa have a conflict externally with her boss instead of portraying her internal conflicts with herself because it is more difficult to display internal conflicts on camera. The boundaries and limits the film has impede it from becoming a memorable story.
In the film, Theresa actually goes directly to Garrett's house and meets his father. She gives a lame excuse saying that she admires old houses. In the novel, Theresa goes to the dive shop where she knows Garrett works. She sees a man at the desk, and she realizes that he could very well be Garret himself. She looks around throughout the store and looks through a couple of books. She then sees a newspaper article hanging on the wall. There is a picture of a good-looking couple standing in front of a beautiful boat named Constance. As Theresa read on she discovers that Garrett Black and his wife Catherine had remodeled the old boat and named it Constance. Theresa decides to head down to the dock to see the famous "Constance". That is when she meets Garrett Black for the first time. The novels plot seems to flow more smoothly than the film's plot. The film changed a lot of Spark's storyline for no apparent reason. The film's plot moves slowly and looses the interest of the audience.
At the end of the film Garrett Black decides to sail out to sea to send out his last letter to his dead wife, Catherine. The letter explained how he found a new love and how he must learn to let Catherine go to be able to live his new life with Theresa. Garrett gets stuck in a storm and sees a boat close to him flip over. He saves two victims from the boat and then, he dives into the sea to try to save the third person. Unfortunately he does not make it back. In the novel, Garrett realizes that there is a storm coming when he sets out to sea, but he is determined to reach a particular location where he can throw the bottle. The storm formed earlier and stronger than he expected and he died trying to reach closure with his lost love. The film ruined the entire ending. The other people Garrett died for had nothing to do with the storyline. In the novel, Garrett's death has a stronger impact on the reader because he dies trying to end his life with Catherine right before he would begin his new life with Theresa. The film destroyed the meaning of his death by saving other people. It destroyed the impact of the novel.
The film portrays the characters to be two lonely people with boring lives who fall in love with each other. The novel on the other hand has more freedom to elaborate on each character's thoughts and helps the readers become part of the story. The film, Message in a Bottle should have never been created. Watching the film was a complete waste of time. Reading the book was a worthwhile experience.
Sparks, Nicholas. Message in a Bottle. New York: New York, 1999.
Message in a Bottle. Screenplay by Leslie Weisberg. Dir. Luis Mondoki. Prod. David Siegal. Perf. Kevin Costner, Robin Penn, and John Savage. Videocassette. Warner Bros./Bel Air, 1999.