The Shipping News Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)January 16th, 2002
THE SHIPPING NEWS (2001) 1 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Gordon Pinsent and Alyssa, Kaitlyn and Lauren Gainer. Music by Christopher Young. Screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs. Based on the novel by E. Annie Proulx. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Rated R. Approx. 124 minutes.
Pretentious best describes the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Shipping News. Something definitely was lost in the transition from page to screen, or else the Pulitzer committee suffered from a lack of noteworthy entries.
Not all novels are readily adaptable to the screen. The Shipping News may be one such case. What seems appealing and profound in print plays out stultified or inane on the screen.
Even though the film was recut, with an added narration by Kevin Spacey’s character at the opening and closing, the movie still remains uninvolving, the characters types rather than fleshed-out people and the dialogue the kind you only read in books and not hear real people speak.
Plus, Shipping News is one of those annoying novels in which most of the characters have odd names to call attention to their quirkiness.
Spacey stars as Quoyle, which seems to be his family’s name, but he lacks a first name. He’s not Fred or Tom or Bob or Quentin; just Quoyle.
His daughter’s name is Bunny, his sluttish wife is Petal, his new-found love is Wavey. You get the idea.
The movie’s biggest problem rests with the characterization of Quoyle. At the outset, he’s a nebbish, an invisible poor soul trodden upon by the world around him. He works as an ink setter at a newspaper.
A tragedy propels Quoyle and Bunny to retreat — at the urging of his Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) — to the family home in the small fishing village of Killick-Claw in Newfoundland.
There, Quoyle secures a job as a reporter for the local weekly newspaper, The Gammy Bird.
This transformation, this surge of new-found surge of confidence discovered by Quoyle is wholly unrealistic. Yet screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, who adapted E. Annie Proulx's novel, and director Lasse Hallstrom, expect us to accept it without question.
Perhaps if Spacey’s Quoyle had shown some spark of initiative at the outset, I might have, but from the opening reel until he reaches Newfoundland, Quoyle is a human punching bag, accepting life’s hooks and jabs without complaint.
His metamorphosis is just too unbelievable to accept.
Cate Blanchett provides an overpowering performance as Petal, the traveling burglar alarm salesperson, who quickly seduces Quoyle into marriage, but later finds her husband boring and shows her contempt for him by bringing her lovers into their home.
The Oscar-winning Dench brings grit and an underlying weight of sadness to her Agnis, the holder of a dark family secret that Quoyle — of course — later discovers.
Best of all is Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse, the single mom who ignites the spark of romance in Quoyle.
Able support comes from Pete Postlethwaite as Tert Card, Scott Glenn as Jack Buggit, Rhys Ifan as Beaufield Nutbeem and Gorden Pinsent as Billy Pretty, Quoyle's eccentric bunch of co-workers at The Gammy Bird.
Yet despite the strong cast, The Shipping News just flops around like a fish foundering on the beach. It asks too much of its audience, offering very little in return.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found by going to www.jconline.com and clicking on golafayette.
Bloom's reviews also can be found on the Web at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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