The Shipping News Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)January 15th, 2002
THE SHIPPING NEWS
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: An American newspaper worker whose life is in disarray finds a chance to belong to a community and to heal himself in a Newfoundland fishing village. This
is the familiar plot based on the novel by E. Annie
Proulx. Actor Kevin Spacey and director Lasse Hallstrom have each made similar but more enjoyable films before. Engaging, but nothing special. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
I would like to call attention to what I think is an unrecognized subgenre of film. It is not wide enough to be a genre by itself, but it is a story that is fairly commonly done. Let's call it a "Salt of the Earth Redemption" film. The main character of the story is somebody who is leading a life that is somehow lacking. The person may or may not realize his (it is almost invariably a male for some reason) life is out of joint, but it is. The person is forced by circumstance to go to some place he would not normally go and where he does not fit in. At first the misfit is a little boggled by the strange people of this place. They have their own ways and they are not his ways. But the longer he is there the more he finds that he understands and really likes these people. And in this remote place he finds what has been lacking in his life. I suppose it is sort of an obvious plot. You want to paint a portrait of an exotic people and want to show them in a favorable life, so what better way then showing the contact transforming some visitor's life? Films in this subgenre include GRAND HIGHWAY, LOCAL HERO, A GREAT WALL, and perhaps WITNESS and A STRANGER AMONG US. The story may even be traced back to the story of Joseph in the Bible who did not fit in in his own land but rose to prominence and power in Egypt. Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom built his international reputation on one such film, MY LIFE AS A DOG. Kevin Spacey played the likable eccentric native in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.
Quoyle (played by Kevin Spacey) is living a life that is a string of wrong decisions and failures. He is a minor functionary on the Poughkeepsie News when he marries Petal (Cate Blanchett), the sort of woman euphemistically called a "free spirit." Bunny's ties of marriage and motherhood come and go as she finds convenient. They have a daughter, Bunny, though Petal is a constant threat to both Quoyle's custody of her and Bunny's health and safety. Then multiple tragedies remove Petal from the picture and force Quoyle and Bunny to go with Quoyle's aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) to travel to Newfoundland as a family responsibility. Being there brings a set of new failures and leaves Quoyle and Bunny living in a leaky old house in Newfoundland. He gets an unexpected job reporting for the local newspaper. Eventually Quoyle finds that he likes the locals, though no attempt is made by the writers to romanticize the Newfoundlanders and even less so their forebears. The chilling Newfoundland climate has fostered a people who are cold and hard as the ice. Quoyle finds the history of this place, and not least of Quoyle's family, painful and one that some viewers will find it disturbing.
Some humor is generated by the newspaper's grim determination to make the most lackluster news in the world sound at least moderately dramatic. To do this they publish expedient exaggerations and the occasional intentional lie all in the name of making the news engaging. Once Quoyle learns to dramatically headline the bland, he uses the technique to describe the events in his own improving life. There even are the beginnings of a romance as Quoyle discovers an attractive widow played by Julianne Moore.
THE SHIPPING NEWS is well acted. Spacey plays a character much like the one he played in AMERICAN BEAUTY. Perhaps his is even a little less spirited here. Hallstrom and Proulx are anxious to explain the eccentricities of the people but makes them only a little more respectable and not a whole lot more likable. It is about grim people living in a grim part of the world. The viewer understands them but is never really comfortable in the setting the way one is in Bill Forsyth's LOCAL HERO or in Hallstrom's MY LIFE AS A DOG. I rate this film a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected] Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
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