The Shipping News (2001)

Please don't spend money on this.

Great Film overall

Charming and brutal

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

its delicacy . as basic virtue. the second - the great performances. not surprising. because the actors work is only another proof of impeccable art. because the novel gives all the opportunities for a story who mix the theory of the second chance with beautiful love story. and Judy Dench did the right role for give a form of spell to a so simple and honest remind of small things who define the authentic happiness than it becomes, scene by scene, more than impressive. a film about hope and new beginning. so, an universal story who has not the desire to demonstrate something. only remind. the taste of a rare state , old fashion joy and polite way to define the right manner to be yourself after a long expectation.

Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) is a meek man struggling in life after his domineering father. He falls for hard-partying Petal (Cate Blanchett) and they have daughter Bunny together. She sells the six-year old to illegal adoption for $6k and dies in a car crash with her boyfriend. Quoyle's father dies and his half-sister Agnis Hamm (Judi Dench) comes to steal his ashes. Quoyle decides to leave upstate New York to live in the ancestral Quoyle home in Newfoundland with Bunny. Despite being only an inksetter, local paper owner Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn) forces him to write the Shipping News and local car wrecks, real and fake. Tert Card (Pete Postlethwaite) is the hard editor. Beaufield Nutbeem (Rhys Ifans) and Billy Pretty (Gordon Pinsent) are fellow reporters. Quoyle falls for widowerer Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore). Quoyle struggles to write in the morbid newspaper style until he writes about the Hitler boat. Jack gives him his own column.This is a story of pirates, outlandish tales, and shocking reveals of family traumas. The material is there for something with an unique voice. Kevin Spacey doesn't fit as the meek Quoyle. He's a great actor but he has to really act it up to be this much of a walkover. This movie struggles to find that appealing quirkiness out of these fascinating morbid tales.

A man. And his search for real roots. A aunt as incarnation of old stories - shadows of roots. And his daughter like guide for a a world very strange. Terra Nova. A new land. Maybe a perfect house or place for hove a sense. And the memory of a woman for who the pieces of gray childhood is gone. A death. And a new beginning. A story by Annie Proulx. Signs of novels colors. And a cast who makes the events slices of a bread. History of truth of life, movie is , like novel, form for carpe diem. With errors, fake ways, hopes and science to discover the others as parts of himself. A travel to the real person for build freedom. Parable without great ambitions. Basic steps and a delicate love story as key for the hidden room. And Kevin Spacey. As frame of his roles. Judi Dench. As seed of story. Cate Blanchette. Shadow of a passing evil.

Based on Annie Proulx's novel, Lasse Hallström's 'The Shipping News' starts off a little slow. At first, I thought it would be one of those Hollywood adaptations loaded with dramatic clichés but as the story moves on and the characters build up, it makes a better turn. The film appears to centre around Quoyle and his struggle to find a new life after the death of his promiscuous vampish wife (whose last act was selling their daughter to a black market adoption agency,unbeknownst to Quoyle). However, the supporting characters (even though they have limited screen time) are equally important because they all have a dark secret and that's what 'The Shipping News' is about, how sharing a secret can set someone free from burden.The film beautifully captures Newfoundland, right from the somewhat barren yet stunning landscape to the local culture. The cinematography, art direction and score contribute well to the atmosphere. Newfoundland itself is presented as a character.Even though I found the pacing to be a little uneven, the refreshing subtle humour balances well with the quiet intense scenes. Spacey's Quoyle appears to be a tad monotonous in the first half. There was something lacking in Spacey's performance during this portion a but the actor does manage to do much more with the role in the second half. Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Pete Postlethwaite and Cate Blanchett are superb. Even though Blanchett's character is poorly developed, the actress rises above it. The rest of the cast especially Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Gordon Pinsent and Jason Behr are just as brilliant.'The Shipping News' may have its flaws but it's visually intriguing, well acted and funny. In the end, it is a worthy film experience.