Sunday, October 25, 2009

SUNDAY MUSINGS: Message In A Bottle


Robin Wright Penn & Kevin Costner

Just finished watching a beautiful movie.... for the 3rd time.  Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, Paul Newman starring in "Message in a Bottle". Ahhh, haven't seen it in years, but I remember well the first time I experienced this tear jerker.  Picture it, Vancouver, 1999.   It was a winter day. I was alone in the theatre.  I watched two people intimately fall in love.  I understood the reasons, I journeyed with the characters. I felt like I was being a voyeur watching the sneaky way Theresa sought out Garret, the interest, the awkward first dates, the fear of letting someone really see you, and then allowing yourself to fall.  After watching it, I called a girlfriend and told her she had to see this movie.  Told her all about it.  A couple of weeks later, I saw her walking in the mall dazed, red and swollen just having come out of the theatre. Girlfriend was messed up!

Beautifully directed by Luis Mandoki this movie felt so present.  No pretension whatsoever.  Even the dialog felt real.  I know it was scripted but it flowed like improv.  The pacing made the film so sensual, you really got into the characters rhythm as they communicated like the way we do in real life.  Oh man, so beautiful.  I loved the dialogue so much that when I decided to act and began taking classes, I worked on one of the scenes from the movie.  It was the scene in the beginning when Teresa and Garret have their first date.  I remember thinking, geez such an easy scene.  So easy in fact, that it was freaking difficult to do. I mean really hard. You really have to be connected to your partner and actually allow yourself to be present and trusting.  Not an easy feat.  But Robin Wright Penn and Kevin Costner (what ever happened to that dude?) made it look easy.  Same goes for the late Paul Newman, in one of my favorite roles to date.  He was so freaking great, grumpy, loving and real.  The first time I saw it, I cried really hard for about an entire day.  It was sparked by a really innocent scene.  Teresa and Garret were running around playing on the beach. A really cheesy scene, and it got me!  Today, it was 2 different scenes, and by the end I was a total mess. (sigh)  Again it took me off guard. I guess such outbursts are a bit of a thermometer for me.  I know where I am emotionally.

If you've never seen this movie, rent it.  Have kleenex close at hand. Yeah, I'm a sucker for romantic movies about love.  Makes me think of something I heard years ago.  An explorer was asked why a remote tribe he visited had so many songs about the rain.  The explorer said "I suppose its the same reason why we have so many songs about love.  The men of the dessert rarely see the rain"
When I see films like this, I think that at the end of my life, I can say, "I am so proud that I was an actor".



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