I think its safe to say that as far as love stories go, at 90 minutes this is clearly 83 minutes too long!. Schmaltzy is not the word as ‘Robin (I married Sean) Penn clashes lips with wholesome all American, ‘Kevin Costner’, soon to be back on top and much safer ground with another sprawling Western in ‘Open Range’.
Diabetics! Reach for your insulin as this is a shockingly predictable soppy love story stuff that is so riddled with Hollywood cliché and sickly narration that we will join you in that coma, if just for relief!.

It’s a shame as the romantic premise here is pretty sound and it’s beautifully set on the scenic Eastern Seaboard coast where George (Perfect Storm) Clooney pitched and rolled on those ‘Outer Banks’. Where as the Mexican heroically bought in the catch from those rearing waves in that exciting thriller, Captain’ wimpy’ Costner is as wet as a haddock and only has ‘fromage’ in his trawl. Im sure if ‘Sean Robin Wright’ had her choice of sailors I think she would rather prefer ‘Sting’ slipping her a message with a tantric bottle over the poop deck!.

They to are immediately drawn to this mysteriously romantic man and his unconditional love, cooing at every stroke of the writers peen like a lovers touch.
Boss in big Robbie Coltrane off all people feels this could be a great story and when he runs the transcript in the paper the response is a very large mail bag, and that means a story!. When a letter is sent in on identical paper by a reader who found it in a rest room, Coltrane puts Theresa on the mystery to quite literal follow her heart.
She needs some romance in her life to reignite her writing skills and the boss wants to get everyone’s circulation up with a good romantic tale.

The mystery man in true romantic movie style is none other than world famous international movie star ‘Kevin Costner (Kevin Costner) a.k.a Garret of course!.Oh and his dad is the even more famous blue eyed brooding’ smoothie’, Paul Newman!. What a stroke of luck girl!.

Theresa doesn’t reveal her identity and motive to Garret as she files the copy in her head and inevitably falls for the simple small town bumpkin, her true objective all along. But Garrets tale is a tragic one (tissues girls!) and his endless love for Caroline may not let the new woman into his life and the sensitive emotions stirring in those love letters.
If she is too win the heart that is clearly broken then he has to let go of the memories and Newman needs to cut back his screen time as he’s clearly the best thing in this…….

This is the type of schlock romantic ebb and flow that appeals to those menopausal women who take ten Mills &Boon books out on mass from the local library. Its pulp romance at its worse with Costner totally wasted here alongside the far less accomplished but able actress, Mrs Penn. Who says you don’t get the roles when you dump your famous lover!.
It’s a shame because the basic premise of dropping a message into the water for your lover, found by someone who wants to fill those deck shoes, is a pretty romantic idea.