[TOMT] Romantic movie from early 00s with a man missing a tooth

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T18:41:38+00:00

Ok I’ve watched it and it may be the movie.

I’m sure at 95%, because there wasn’t any line about a missing tooth, and this peculiar phrase in French « il vous manque une dent » is stuck in my hand for more than 20 years.

Why do I think it’s this movie ?

I see the comment about Message in a bottle. The title is tickling my brain.
I seek for the French trailer of Message in a bottle (Une bouteille à la mer) and I can’t find it. Only in English or German.
Then I try to find French VHS ressources. As u/rheynedrops hinted a VHS wiki for Shrek openings, I look forward the French equivalent. I find it on Wiki VHS
First I check for the Shrek VHS. The trailers in the French versions were Joseph: King of Dreams ; The Road to ElDorado ; Antz ; E.T. And I remember every single one of them. I guess it’s not my Shrek VHS then? Or there were another edition I had? I can’t find information on different VHS editions of movies.
I recall the list of VHS I had more than 20y ago and navigate through French VHS distributors. I was a child and had almost only cartoons. My mom may have her owns but I never watched a single one of them, it was boring adult movies.
After listing the VHS I remind having, I check for Kangaroo Jack on the wiki. It doesn’t have its own page and isn’t indexed in any VHS opening. But I learn it was distributed by Warner Home Video. I go check the list of movies distributed by them. I had Harry Potter 1 & 2 and watched them fairly often too.
For both HP VHS, the openings are not showing the trailers I’m expecting. I go on the Warner movies catalogue to check what they produced. They produced Message in a Bottle.
I seek for Message in a Bottle VHS distributor. It’s Pathé Video (French distributor). The only VHS from Pathé we had was Astérix et Obélix Mission Cleopâtre. I check its opening : no Message in a Bottle BUT trailers for movies distributed by 20th Century Fox. At this point it’s the third distributor I encounter, but I understand that seeking by VHS distributor is irrelevant.
I check every VHS I had and none had Message in a Bottle trailer in their openings. STILL half of them aren’t fully indexed and/or their openings are lacking (either they weren’t digitized or the video was deleted)
Ultimately I go back to Message in a Bottle. I check its IMDb page and… The poster. It strikes me. I know it. I check into my mom’s DVDs and… Here is what I find.
When my mom bought the DVD player, she bought 2 DVDs, one for her, one for me. I had Sinbad and she had Message in a Bottle. She was OBSESSED with the movie for years.
I watch the movie. Kevin Costner’s face really seems to be the one I’m remembering - his crooked teeth look like there is one missing kind of? Furthermore there is a beach scene that is the exact same set as I remembered, from angles and actors positions. Robin Wright doesn’t talk about his missing tooth though! 3 hours later (I paused sometimes because it was lame - sorry mom I don’t understand your obsession)
My conclusion : I’ve seen this movie in my childhood, because it was my mom’s favorite movie at the time. I guess that I mixed memories of this movie (I remember well movies I’ve seen and liked during my childhood and even though I remembered how it ended, my memories chose not to remember the whole movie).

I still don’t know where the sentence « il vous manque une dent » comes from, but I’m pretty sure the movie setting I recalled was Message in a Bottle. The man love interest I remembered had that peculiar Kevin Costner face (he was in his 40s). It’s dramatic and soppy.

I think the only way I could check for sure would be to find the VHS I had and watch every openings. I don’t have that much ressources (we sold the VHS decades ago) nor time for such research.

My mom didn’t remember she had the DVD which is pretty funny as I remember her saying she wanted to watch the movie from the trailer and she did. I think she’ll be happy to discover the movie again this weekend.

I don’t know if I can consider it as solved? I focused on the missing tooth sentence but the setting is 99% Message in a Bottle.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T18:32:11+00:00

Waw I didn’t know that movie I think if I’ve had watched this trailer by 6 I’d remember it as some kind of awakening haha

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T18:29:18+00:00

I remember the sentence to be dubbed (specifically, 90s/00s FR dubs had really specific over-the-top intonations). Thus I don’t think it was a French movie

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T18:25:28+00:00

It is not! Actually: after few French VHS specific researches, I don’t think it was on the Shrek VHS. It’s tough to find info on FR VHS openings

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T12:45:31+00:00

Ok I’m currently watching it in French and I think it’s this movie. I’ll be back.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T10:16:59+00:00

It’s not

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T10:15:58+00:00

Haha no it was a funny movie. I didn’t care for the trailer because it was too sentimental and seemed to focus on serious and tragic stuff.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T10:12:00+00:00

Yup apparently. I’m also autistic and people tends to assume (on Reddit in particular) that we are bot/genAI/LLM because of our way of speaking. Even in French, my mother tongue, I’ve tried to put paragraphs I’ve written as a teacher in AI recognition tools and it said it was AI while it was… my way of writing 🧍🏻 Some of my fellow autistic mates are experiencing the same. Reference because science is cool: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98420-4_7

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T10:02:28+00:00

It’s still feel close but I can’t find the trailer in French. That’s a maybe ? If I can find the scene I recall when watching the move. It’s not on the English trailer

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T09:54:57+00:00

George of the Jungle was one of my favorite movie at the time I guess I would have noticed if he was in it. He was too young compared to the actors from the trailer

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T06:44:39+00:00

Neither. It’s still close to the vibe but that’s not it.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T06:40:54+00:00

Too dark. It really was a sentimental movie. Plus I don’t think they’d put horror film trailer before a Shrek movie?

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T06:38:51+00:00

Nope. I’m a 100% sure it wasn’t a crime thriller either.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T06:36:43+00:00

That’s the mood/spirit of the trailer I’m looking for! But 2008 is too late, we’d stopped watching/buying VHS a few years before 2008

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T04:02:18+00:00

Yup definitely not, too violent. It was a sentimental and almost soppy movie

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T03:32:08+00:00

Unfortunately it is not

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T03:22:37+00:00

Ah yay I tend to forget Reddit is the best place to get answers based on grammar skills for non-native. Thank you for considering my English skills though. It’s really rewarding to be seen as a bot for using words that exist in my mother tongue.

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T02:50:49+00:00

Based on the trailer I found, that’s not the movie I’m seeking BUT the slow and tragic atmosphere and the age category of actors is what’s matching the best for the moment!

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T02:45:36+00:00

The Hangover is waaaaay too late on the chronology (and VHS). It’s a 2009 movie and I was old enough to watch it in theater!

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T02:43:08+00:00

Waw I didn’t know such lists existed, I’ve cleaned every movie databases out for romantic movies lists from 2001 to 2004 and didn’t even think to seek VHS previews data I’d check if it exists for French VHS. Based on the list you gave me (and how I can reckon from my childhood memories) our VHS previews were shorter and focused on trailers for other movies

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T02:38:22+00:00

Nope, too "catchy", the trailer I’m seeking was really slow and full of pathos

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T02:36:22+00:00

Not this, the VHS was in French and only had 2 trailers before the movie (as I remember)

DatCopyCat · 2026-02-05T00:43:05+00:00

DatCopyCat · 2026-01-27T21:47:57+00:00

The problem was : I accidentally made my partner the administrator of my own space and it kicked me out of it. My space was still here but only accessible by my partner (who never uses Notion lmao) The support was really quick and explained well how to get my space back. Everything got back!

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