Hey folks, Harry here. THE SHIPPING NEWS was once being touted as Miramax's Oscar bait, but the industry really doesn't seem to be buzzing too hard about the film now. Many are writing it off, but does that mean anything? Often times the Hollywood crowd is cruelly cynical and particularly mean to anything from Miramax that even vaguely smells of Oscar bait. It's nice to see that Lasse Hallstrom looks to have made another very good film. I look forward to checking it out for myself. Here ya go.....
Hey Harry, Capone in Chicago here. I'll be brief: THE SHIPPING NEWS is a very good film that doesn't attempt to shock you, kick your ass, or otherwise get your blood racing. It wants to move you without a desperate attempt to grip your heart strings and twist like…well like heart strings.
Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom has made a career of telling fables in his films. The stories are never told in a straight-ahead manner. Instead there are mystical and other worldly elements that turn much of what he does from your run-of-the-mill plot to something of a grungy fairy tale. MY LIFE AS A DOG, WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, and CHOCOLAT are examples of an approach to filmmaking that no other director really attempts. THE SHIPPING NEWS is right at home among these other films as it tells the story of a lonely, empty man living in upstate New York who marries the first woman who will sleep with him and has his heart thrown upon the rocks from that day forward.
The man in question is has the last name of Quoyle and he’s played by Kevin Spacey in his lowest of low-key roles. Spacey plays Quoyle as if he’s afraid of the sound of his own voice. He’s so soft spoken, his words almost get carried away by the wind. The woman in question is called Petal (Cate Blanchett), and she’s your standard-issue tramp. She meets him as she is running away from her previous boyfriend. He is overwhelmed by her pretty smile and short skirt, and within hours of meeting her he announces that he’s in love with her. The two have a child and get married almost immediately, but when he parents die and there is no inheritance money, Petal takes their daughter and leaves with her new boyfriend. Quoyle reports them missing and shortly thereafter the police find their car in the water smashed to bits with the driver and passenger dead. It turns out Petal had sold her daughter in a black market adoption operation.
Quoyle and his daughter decide a change is needed, and they move to Newfoundland with his aunt Agnis (Judi Dench), who has dropped in on them to pay respects to his ashes. Once we get to Newfoundland, things quiet down some in Quoyle’s life. He starts the film as the type of man who has a tough time getting a grip on his life and basically going where the strongest wind takes him. In the Newfoundland shipping town, everyone is a bit more grounded (on the surface). He gets a job at the local paper doing reports on ships coming in and out of port, and on any auto accidents that happen in town. Editor Scott Glenn loves photos of car wrecks for some reason. Quoyle also meets Wavey (Julianne Moore), the woman who heads up the local day care center. The most interesting thing about THE SHIPPING NEWS are the performances (there isn’t much by way of a story). Actors we’ve seen to extraordinarily extroverted roles in the past are pushed to be unremarkable, in a way. These are not characters driven to do great things. They are happy surviving a trip to sea to do a little fishing in stormy waters. But as Quoyle gets familiar with the town and its people, cracks appear in the quiet and seemingly unbreakable facade, including that worn by Quoyle. He still has not gotten over the grand betrayal his wife forced upon him. Even as he begins a tentative relationship with Wavey (who has also lost a spouse), he’s afraid to fall for another beautiful woman.
THE SHIPPING NEWS is about as quiet a film as you’re likely to see this year. Director Hallstrom has tailored what is his most Swedish-like English-language films and it worked for me. After seeing Kevin Spacey lose himself in the ham in K-PAX, I was glad to see him reeled back in and give a truly moving performance. Usually in a film where the townspeople are featured to some degree, quirks abound. But here, the people are just people. They aren’t trying to stand out or come across as eccentric. THE SHIPPING NEWS is about mood and place and survival on a small scale. It’s a work of great elegance and subdued beauty.
Capone (I want to hear what you are thinking at this moment, write me!)
