Review of Message in a Bottle

I went to see Message in a Bottle with no great expectations. In fact I had deep preconceptions because of Variety's panning review. But what a pleasant surprise it was! The mood and pace of the film were cleverly arranged to have you wrapped within a wave of emotions. By the end of the film all I could do was to clear my throat, leave the theater and rush out to buy the soundtrack. I think this is one of those films where the soundtrack plays a great role and the images are fixed to your brain in close relation to the music. Gabriel Yared's original score really blew me in this context. Hollywood is so lucky to have discovered him. Is there another composer currently working who gave three awe-inspiring scores back to back? After The English Patient, City of Angels and now this, he's one of my top three composers. The cast was mostly on autopilot but Robin Wright Penn did a good job expressing her character's feelings about this man of sea in a convincing manner. This surely is one of my all-time favourite romantic films, right up there with Titanic and City of Angels.