There's much to admire about "The Shipping News," Lasse Hallstrom's
adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about one man's
search for redemption.
Reuniting with screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, who successfully adapted last year's "Chocolat," Hallstrom again makes vivid use of location -- in this case, a windswept fishing village along Canada's rugged eastern seaboard -- to serve as an intriguing canvas for another poignant character portrait.
With a very able cast on hand to flesh out the finer details, including Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench and nominees Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Pete Postlethwaite, it makes for an artfully assembled picture.
But it's one that's viewed from a respectful distance, ultimately failing to make a lasting emotional connection.
That lingering chill probably won't put a damper on the Miramax release's boxoffice prospects. Fans of the book and the female-skewing over-25 set should ensure that "Shipping" drops anchor for an extended theatrical stay.
Spacey sheds the attitude common to many of his screen characters (and picks up a couple of extra pounds) to assume the identity of Quoyle, a meek newspaper worker in desperate need of a little self-esteem. Abused by his parents and the object of derision by his flagrantly unfaithful wife, Petal (Blanchett), Quoyle gets a shot at salvation in the form of an abrupt move from his modest upstate New York dwelling to the Newfoundland shipping community that was his ancestral home.
With his preternaturally wise daughter, Bunny (played alternately by triplets Alyssa, Kaitlyn and Lauren Gainer), in tow and his recently surfacing aunt, Agnis Hamm (Dench), leading the way, Quoyle sets up shop in the tiny fishing outport of Killick-Claw, landing a job as a reporter at the local newspaper, the Gammy Bird.
Slowly but surely he takes to his new gig and manages to come to terms with a family history that proves even darker than he thought. Along the way he strikes up a not-so-uncertain romance with Wavey Prowse (Moore), a single mother of a mentally challenged boy befriended by Bunny.
Hallstrom and Jacobs do a nice job alluding to the murkier stuff that lies beneath the sing-song cadence and quaint names (see also Beaufield Nutbeem, Jack Buggit, Tert Card and Billy Pretty) of that maritime neck of the woods.
So do Spacey and Moore, playing a pair of damaged souls whose emotions have been strip-mined by their so-called loved ones. Their relationship unfolds with an appropriately awkward amount of unspoken feelings and false starts.
Dench does her usual good work as the feisty Hamm, as do Blanchett and the ensemble playing Quoyle's fellow newspapermen, including Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans and native Newfoundlander Gordon Pinsent.
All of those wind-whipped, mist-laden exteriors are captured evocatively by cinematographer Oliver Stapleton ("The Cider House Rules"), and composer Christopher Young's resonant score effectively combines lilting rhythms with foreboding drumbeats.
The psychological interiors, meanwhile, remain shyly elusive. Despite advertising tag lines inviting viewers to "dive beneath the surface," the picture's ebbing emotional tide makes several restrained attempts but never quite touches the shore.
Thanks to Mike Kennedy for sending this article which appeared in the Hollywood Reporter on December 18, 2001.