The Shipping News Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)December 28th, 2001
THE SHIPPING NEWS
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Quoyle (Kevin Spacey, K-PAX) is haunted by the memory of his father's swimming lesson. The young boy almost drowned after being tossed off a pier and goaded by dad. His imagined failure will haunt his formative years where he drifts through a series of menial jobs until landing as an inker at the Poughkeepsie News. Circumstance places him in the path of bad-news Petal (Cate Blanchett, "Bandits"), whom he marries and has a daughter, Bunny, with. When Quoyle returns from a short trip to collect the ashes of his parents, he returns to discover that Petal ran away with an appalling agenda and died in a car crash. It's at this lowest point that Quoyle's savior arrives in the form of Aunt Agnis (Dame Judi Dench, "Iris"), who convinces him to return to Newfoundland, the home of his ancestors, in "The Shipping News."
Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom ("My Life as a Dog") delivers a Christmas-time Miramax Oscar hopeful for the third year in a row with "The Shipping News." While not as successful an adaptation as "The Cider House Rules," his latest is more deserving of consideration than last year's prefab "Chocolat."
I wasn't a huge fan of Annie Proulx' novel, finding the main character difficult to empathize with and the structure, with its quirky characters dotted throughout, derivative. Robert Nelson Jacob's adaptation does it justice nonetheless, but Kevin Spacey's performance does little to lift Quoyle's character out of 'sleepingwalking through life' mode.
Agnis introduces Quoyle and Bunny to the Quoyle family homestead, abandoned for 44 years and lashed by cables to an ocean bluff overlooking wild seas. Quoyle declares the house uninhabitable while Agnis delights in finding a remembered table amidst the decay. We also quickly learn that Agnis didn't visit Quoyle to pay respects to her deceased brother, but to denigrate his loathed memory when she dumps his ashes down the outhouse before doing her business.
Quoyle's put in touch with Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn, "Training Day"), the owner of the local paper, The Gammy Bird, who gives him a job as a journalist over Quoyle's own protests. Assigned to cover car crashes, he keeps visualizing Petal. Assigned to gather the shipping news, he produces a list from the harbor master. It's not until some mentoring by photographer Billy Pretty (Gordon Pinsent) and some nudging to look behind his list by Buggit that Quoyle finds his talent. Tert (Pete Postlethwaite, "Rat"), the paper's editor, thinks he's hanging Quoyle out to dry by putting his tale of Hitler's yacht on the front page, but it his plan backfires and Buggit gives Quoyle a weekly column and a computer.
As Quoyle's self esteem is rising in his new profession, he begins to try and court local single mother Wavey (Julianne Moore, "Hannibal") and work through the oddness of his daughter Bunny, who sees ghosts. He works through his fear of the water by taking to it in his own boat. Skeletons begin to tumble out of family closets when Quoyle makes a discovery that almost causes him to drown a second time.
While Spacey's Quoyle never really engages and Moore's Newfoundlander Wavey is Irish accented and lacking depth, the Gammy Bird's staff and Quoyle's family feature strong performances across the board. Dench has a character to work with here (unlike "Iris," where she still managed to give a great performance) and she's thoroughly convincing. Cate Blanchett hasn't had a misstep yet and her trashy Petal is no exception. Scott Glenn is charming as the intuitive newspaper owner who's a fisherman at heart, family curse or no family curse. Rhys Ifans ("Notting Hill") gives a coy, charming turn as Nutbeem, an Englishman who sailed in on a Chinese junk and never left while the unknown Pinsent makes his mark as a true newspaperman. Larry Pine and Jeanetta Arnette deftly carve full characterizations with little screen time as the unfortunate yacht owners, the Melvilles.
Production designer David Gropman ("Chocolat") and cinematographer Oliver Stapleton ("The Cider House Rules") make superb use of their Newfoundland location, emphasizing both the area's harshness and its ability to bind a community together. Editor Andrew Mondschein ("Chocolat") nimbly segues between Quoyle's dreams and reality. Christopher Young's ("Bandits") Irish folklike score puts percussion and flute at the forefront.
"The Shipping News" has a weak headliner, but it's fleshed out by its bylines.
B
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