Watching a wallflower bloom can be a wonderful
thing — think of Toni Collette in Muriel's Wedding
or Paul Newman in Nobody's Fool. Kevin Spacey
doesn't quite get there in The Shipping News —
his performance is too arid. But Lasse
Hallström's adaptation of Annie Proulx's
award-winning novel is still engaging enough to
watch, and a fair measure better than his
ridiculously overrated last work, Chocolat.
Spacey plays Quoyle, a mild-mannered typesetter whose existence is uprooted by a fast gal named Petal (Cate Blanchett, memorable in a small role) who jumps into his car as she's running from her current lover. She takes him to bed and he wakes up in love. For Petal, Quoyle provides a roof over her head and the freedom to do as she pleases, though she's none too pleased when she ends up pregnant. She sticks around a few years longer, but then grabs the kid and heads off with a new male victim.
Quoyle ends up getting his daughter Bunny (played by triplets, though not at the same time) back after Petal tries to sell the unfortunate tot on the black market. Then his father dies, and though there was no love lost between them, the poor guy settles deeper into his depression. When an energetic woman named Agnis (Judi Dench) shows up and introduces herself as his aunt, a bit of liveliness is injected into the proceedings. She's on a mission that involves returning to their childhood home in Newfoundland to bring a family secret to rest, and her nephew and grand-niece decide to come along.
News' story whips through this preamble, but then slows down once it arrives at the wintry shores of Northeastern Canada. Quoyle gets a job at the town newspaper, The Gammy Bird, since his family name is known to the locals. Because of his self-esteem problems, though, it takes a while for him to feel comfortable as a journalist, and being afraid of the water and blood makes him ill-equipped to cover maritime news and car wrecks.
After his quirky reportage begins to gain in popularity, Quoyle becomes more accepted by the other residents, and even pursues a romance with a neighboring widow, Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore). Both are lonely, unforthcoming people, so their affection progresses only a little at a time, but any other way would be unrealistic.
A slow pace is not the film's problem; Kevin Spacey's performance is. Having put on a few pounds, he has the ideal physical shape of Quoyle, but his flat acting style keeps viewers from becoming involved in the character's dilemma. A role like this is immensely difficult — play it too flashy and it's unbelievable. However, if an actor goes the understated route, he risks disappearing completely, and Spacey's vanishing act is The Shipping News' hollow core.
Other flaws exist, as well. The point of the film (and of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it's based on) is that the real news of note lies in the land and the stories of the villagers, but there just aren't enough tales told to create this impact. An old coot named Billy Pretty (Gordon Pinsent) reveals the Quoyle family history to the protagonist, but it's not as compelling as it should be. Nor is the recounting of the disunity between the Gammy's editor (Scott Glenn) and his son, Dennis (Jason Behr).
Dench's part is another problem. Sure, Agnis is a tough old bird who devises a particularly fitting end for the ashes of her brother, but her story isn't revealed until the character has been sidelined to the point of being forgotten. Bits about various locals being "sensitive" (read: psychic) also aren't developed enough to be more than local-flavor window dressing.
Scriptwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs certainly improves on his most recent work for the director (the gooey, ghastly Chocolat), but isn't quite up to the challenge of adapting Proulx's multi-faceted work. Though cinematographer Oliver Stapleton offers a wonderful texture for The Shipping News — the bitter weather, the freezing seas, the houses chained to the ground so they don't fly off a cliff — Spacey's stunted performance keeps Hallström's film from ever blooming fully.
This article appeared on the Reel.com Website.