The Shipping News (2001)

Load of rubbish!!

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Talk about a midlife crisis. Kevin Spacey's character, Quoyle, has one with such bizarre contributors as only a novelist could conjure up. Annie Proulx won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her 1993 novel of this same title. The story wreaks soap opera throughout except for its setting and a slower, more deliberate layout of the plot. Most soaps have that confined indoors look and feel, and the outdoors of Newfoundland in this film go against that. But the story is one huge melodrama. Drawn out and slowed down, but quite a melodrama. I first saw this film in the theater. Seeing it again years later, I have the same reaction. It's a strange story, maybe the start of a happy ending, but just sort of dull. This film doesn't have much life, but then that may be what the point is – at least at the start. I just don't find that sort of thing very enjoyable. I understand that some people may, and that's fine for them. It's passable mostly because of the setting and the good acting we see. Besides Spacey, principals are Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse and Judi Dench as Aunt Agnis. I liked some of the minor performances as well – Pete Postlethwaite as Tert Card and native Newfoundlander Gordon Pinsent as Billy Pretty. This type of film isn't for everyone – even most folks perhaps. If one is in the doldrums, it's not recommended. If one is in a chipper mood, this might even nip that back a bit.

Ecch, voice-over. Keven Spacey narrates from early childhood (the not quite drowned cliché) to adulthood, where he's an ink-setter in Poughkeepsie, NY, and where he meets his first wife, Petal. The word 'clueless' keeps coming to mind.They spawn a daughter, much to Petal's disgust. Petal leaves him with another man after his parents kill themselves in a penniless state.Petal and the interloper drive off the road into a river and die. Nice. They had sold Bunny (the daughter) to a black market adoption agency for 6,000 USD, and had a receipt to prove it. That's how the NYSHP tracked them down and recovered Bunny.Agnes Hamm (his father's half sister) visits, helps him relocate to Newfoundland, helps him move into a house the family still owns, and has not been lived in for 44 years. The house needs quite a bit of repair, and is quite a story in its own right.He gets a job with the local newspaper, and is assigned by Jack to do the shipping news and car accidents. He learns to write in a journalistic style. Agnis comes out of retirement to help bring in more income. He gets advice and learns more about writing.Bunny likes Wavey's son. Wavey and Quoyle become friends.Quoyle shows quite a skill at finding out unfortunate buried facts. Quoyle gets into a disagreement with Tert over shipping news content. It is not pretty, but Jack sides with Quoyle. Later, he finds a body and a head at sea, and manages to lose his boat in the process. Quoyle discovers a number of other secrets, like the bad behavior of his ancestors, his father's bad treatment of his aunt, and the like.By the end of the film, Quoyle is part of the community, and much more at peace with himself.Scores-----Cinematography: 8/10 The majority of the film's frames are on the dark side, almost to the point where some camera/light source changes might have been called for. On the other hand, the film's locations are northerly with frequent overcast skies.Sound: 10/10 No problems. The incidental music was excellent.Acting: 8/10 Kevin Spacey is both the worst (as the younger Quoyle) and the best (older Quoyle) actor in the film. Judi Dench delivered another fine performance. Cate Blanchette's performance was quite repellent, but that was her assignment. Julianne Moore was good. Scott Glenn was delightful. Pete Postlethwaite was great.Screenplay: 8/10 Nicely done, except for the early material. A separate actor for the younger Quoyle would have been much better.

The Shipping News is a drama based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx.It stars Kevin Spacey as the protagonist Quoyle, Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm and Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse. Pete Postlethwaite,Scott Glenn,Rhys Ifans,Cate Blanchett,Jason Behr and Gordon Pinsent co-star to play key supporting roles.It is directed by Lasse Hallström.Quoyle is a struggling, emotionally drained newspaper reporter suffering through a wretched marriage with the abusive Petal, a promiscuous wild woman who tries to sell their daughter, Bunny, into adoption before she's killed in a car wreck. Retrieving his daughter, Quoyle sets out for Newfoundland, his ancestral home, with his long-lost Aunt Agnis. Although he initially finds life on the island to be as forbidding and severe as Agnis herself, Quoyle gets work as a shipping columnist for the local newspaper "The Gammy Bird," owned by eccentric fisherman Jack Buggit. Quoyle's work soon finds an appreciative audience and he begins to rebuild his life, dating local single mother Wavey, learning some sea craft, discovering his family's dark history, and finally earning some self-respect. Agnis, in the meantime, starts her own successful business and faces a traumatic incident from her childhood involving Quoyle's late father.Though solidly made and acted,the movie is rather heavy-handed and dull, especially given the nature of its protagonist brilliantly shows Quoyle's transformation from a passive clod to a curious journalist.Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore astound in touching, well- told tale of rebirth and redemption.On the other hand,it maybe considered modest but true feeling for the ways in which people are formed by the ravages of their natural surroundings can definitely touch the viewer and should be considered an excellent film despite its obvious flaw of awkwardness.

I have to agree with the reviewers who say that at some point we realize that we are never going to bond with anyone in this movie. While what they do is interesting in an isolated way, there isn't much for us to care about. I am a great admirer of Kevin Spacey and I'm sure he was directed to play this guy, but the man is so subdued, so cowardly, that the littlest moments of self-realization seem huge. It's like watching a car accident after a while. The sets in Newfoundland are wonderful, though they are gray and unfriendly. The waters are the enemy but the waters dominate. Everything that you could throw at a guy gets thrown at this guy and he manages to crawl from under it. The cast is about as stellar as one can get. I have not read the book so I can't compare the two media. It certainly was celebrated.