The Shipping News [DVD] [2002]

The story concerns one of life’s losers, Quoyle played by the terrific Kevin Spacey. Shy and underachieving Quoyle is working as an ink setter for the Poughkeepsie News in upstate New York when he and his life are picked up and well and truly shaken by the entry of the beautiful and dangerous Petal. They marry and have a child called Bunny but then it dawns on Quoyle that what he has really married is a top level tramp as Petal stays out drinking and tramping with a variety of other men. When Quoyle receives the news that his parents have died and Petal realises there is no inheritance to be had she skips town with her latest beau and Bunny leaving poor Quoyle stranded. Hours later Petal has “sold” Bunny to an illegal adoption agency and has wound up dead in a serious car accident.

Next on the scene is Quoyle’s aunt, Agnis Hamm, who decides that what is best for Quoyle is for him to leave two and set up home again in the old family home located in a remote Newfoundland fishing village. The location is wind swept and isolated but through new friends met in his new job, writing the fishing news for the local paper and the beautiful leader of the school, Wavey Prowse, Quoyle starts to rebuild his life again....

The acting performances are excellent, as I say Kevin Spacey is flawless as Quoyle although you so suspect the role isn’t that much of a strain for such a fine actor. Judi Dench as the redoubtable aunt Agnis sails through her part and Julianne Moore as Wavey is likewise well commended. I felt the best parts though were played by Cate Blanchett as the strumpet Petal (you won’t recognise her) and Quoyle’s colleagues on the Gammy Bird newspaper, Scott Glenn, Pete Postlethwaite, Rhys Ifans and ***** all deserve a mention. The filming is stunning and great use is made of the wild, bleak and remote location that it’s film in.

I thoroughly recommend this inspiring and moving film and would encourage all to watch it. Read more ›

When she leaves him and is killed in a car accident, he is left alone with his young daughter and a heart full of grief and anguish. That's when this movie really begins. He leaves what little he has behind and travels with his aunt Agnis to New Foundland where his family has a long (and not so sterling) history going back generations to a house pulled up a hill by rope by his ancestors. The dark and beautiful New Foundland coast stands against the harsh winds and is the perfect place for Quoyle to start his life over.

He gets a job writing for the local paper and slowly gains some measure of self respect. He notices beautiful Julianne Moore (in a wonderful performance) but can not articulate to her his slowly growing attraction to her and settles for the friendship she offers. As she begins to see the kind and decent man inside Quoyle he has trouble responding himself because of the damage done to his heart by his dead wife.

There is something magical about this film. There are colorful characters, mysteries unfolding about Quoyle's ancestors, the house his daughter hears speaking to her, and the larger mystery Quoyle must solve, can you love and be loved in return without pain?...

This is a slowly unfolding and richly rewarding film that will stay with you a long time. Kevin Spacey gives one of his finest performances as a man finding his way and learning to heal. I can not say enough good things about this film. If you long for more than most movies have to offer then buy this film and remind yourself that quiet and moving stories are still being made. A movie you must own. Read more ›

Working not as an inksetter but as a reporter for a local newspaper, Quoyle reports car crashes and the shipping news. Though he has no sense of drama and no real writing ability, he finds that some of the stories he uncovers interest people, and he begins to develop emotionally. Through his contact with a vivid local community and the friendships that evolve, he uncovers some of his own family history, shows a confidence he's never had before, and begins to face his personal demons, as do daughter Bunny and Aunt Agnis. Helping him along the way is Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore), whose own life is as filled with dark secrets as that of the Quoyle family.

Adapting Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen, scriptwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs remains true to the characters of the novel, but sacrifices their depth and subtlety, leaving them hollow and lacking true motivation.... Spacey effectively portrays Quoyle's awkwardness and naivete but plays each scene as if it were unconnected with those going before and after, and Julianne Moore, while sympathetic toward Quoyle, does not feel like a "real" Newfoundlander with emotional ties to the rest of the community. Because neither character is fully developed, the action, which is character-based, fails to move the viewer.

Oliver Stapleton's cinematography is coldly stark, filled with angry winds and weather but so beautifully photographed that in many ways it is the strongest aspect of the film. Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom, nominated for a Best Director Oscar for 1999's The Cider House Rules, here flits from scene to scene and subject to subject, never really developing the kind of tension and drama that comes from careful pacing and strong, fully drawn characters. More melodramatic and less humorous than the novel, the film is, nevertheless, an atmospheric and fascinating glimpse of a unique culture and way of life. Mary Whipple Read more ›