SHIPPING NEWS, THE

SYNOPSIS:
Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) has led a life of utter blandness and silent despair, unnoticed by all, even himself. Until one day, during a lover’s spat, a strange and exotic woman commandeers him and his car and takes him for a husband. Petal (Cate Blanchett) is a fast woman and she soon gives birth to a daughter (Alyssa, Kaitlyn, & Lauren Gainer). It’s when she up and leaves him that his adventure truly begins, with the arrival of his aunt Agnis (Judi Dench), who drags Quoyle and his daughter back to the remote Newfoundland island where the Quoyles came from – and where all their demons are waiting to claim them. But as Quoyle gets into his new job at the local paper, reporting on the movements of boats and ships, he begins to find his real self, amidst some extraordinary revelations.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
What makes The Shipping News so entertaining and so profound at the same time is its lifelike lurches from drama to humour, from wit to woe, and from the physical to the mystical. A wonderful adaptation of a best seller is no mean feat, and Robert Nelson Jacobs (who also adapted Chocolat for the screen to much acclaim) deserves to take the first bow. Lasse Hallström deserves the second, for leading a creative team (from camera and costumes to music and design) which manages to construct a tangible reality of the settings that are in themselves compelling, full of the drama and devilry that accompanies this frightfully good tale. The frightfulness comes from Hallström’s underplaying of the mystical elements just enough to make them real – if that’s not too ironic a concept. But all of this is really brought together by a cast of young and old which, without exception, exceeds expectations. Spacey extinguishes his personal spark for much of this role, so that when he lets it come spluttering to life, it’s like a choir of angels. Aided by some brilliant cinematic magic, his story captivates us – because he is an everyman whose lot is every bit as lousy as many of our own. And it’s no wonder that Cate Blanchett took this role, not much more than a featured support, for its challenge and its dynamics. She grabs this character and lets it loose with the energy of a crocodile snagging a goat – much like Petal with Quoyle, come to think of it. Judi Dench proves here that she can deliver theatrical power with cinematic minimalism, and her youngest co-stars – the triplets who play Bunny – match their elders in every scene. Then there’s smashing Pete Postlethwaite as the grumpy editor with a (minute but crucial) personal stake in oil, Scott Glen as the newspaper’s gone-fishing owner, and Julianne Moore as the mystery woman. It’s a great package in the old fashioned sense of cinema: strong characters and good story. And told with passion.