'The Shipping News' worth writing home about
By Margaret A. McGurk
Gannett News Service
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| "The Shipping News"
Stars: Kevin Spacey Gannett News Service/Miramax Films |
Movie fans might find it a smidge self-conscious, even a bit too neat, in a literary way. But they can take comfort in the fine display of talent on the screen.
Spacey plays Quoyle (rhymes with coil), the lost soul who finds his way to Newfoundland after he is deserted by his wife, a floozy named Petal (deliciously rendered by Cate Blanchett) who latched onto him at random.
Accompanied by his daughter Bunny, Quoyle goes north at the urging of his long-lost Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench). She is headed back home to settle an old emotional score buried among the family's many repressed secrets, a condition that afflicts pretty much everyone in the film.
Quoyle finds his own salvation in a job at the local weekly newspaper, writing stories about the comings and goings of boats that ply the remote waters off the village shore. His colorfully named co-workers -- Buggit (Scott Glenn), Nutbeem (Rhys Ifans) and Tert Card (Pete Postlethwaite) -- provide Quoyle the chance finally to assert character and personality he never knew he had.
He also finds inspiration in the person of Wavey (Julianne Moore), the single mother of a retarded boy and a sorry past of her own.
Grim though the stories of these people are, the proceedings are leavened with well-placed splashes of humor, including the funniest "I love you" you've heard on screen in a long time.
Spacey and his estimable supporting cast bring skill and commitment to their roles; they respect their characters and demand as much from the audience.
Director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules), has a nice feel for stories about people searching for their place in the world, and he makes beautiful use of the rugged Newfoundland landscape.
However, he seems to have fallen too much in love with the novel's metaphorical language. In particular, the director uses Quoyle's fear of drowning like a whip, immersing poor Spacey in real and imagined floodwaters at every opportunity.
Despite such lapses, The Shipping News does honor to both the thespian arts and the written word
