The Shipping News
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Movie Reviews of The Shipping News
Movie Review: Lumbering Idiot Stuns Crowd For a Change
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite movies of all time (and favorite books) is the Shipping News (based on the book by E. Annie Prouxl). Each time I watch it, I come away with a new understanding of what makes it good.
The story is about a man who had no breaks in life. He says he can remember thinking he was born to the wrong family, and that one day, his true family would rescue him from the one that he had. You can't blame him for feeling that way, he had a father that, to teach him to swim, threw him into the lake until he almost drowned. What kind of father can watch his child flounder in the water like that, in a panic, going under, gasping for air? But anyway, Quoyle (the main character acted by Kevin Spacey) survives his childhood only to grow up into a dreamlike existence, where he finds no happiness and nothing to live for. He fulfills his father's prophecies for him by dropping out of college and moving from dead-end job to dead-end job. Things begin to change for him when this crazy woman, "Petal" (acted superbly by Kate Blanchett) gets into his car at a gas station in order to leave her boyfriend with whom she's having a fight. She tells Quoyle to drive off, they go to a diner, and she talks about herself while Quoyle stares at her in wonder. What DOES he find so wondrous, you'll ask yourself? Anyone can see that this woman is trash. (And later events really do confirm this judgement.) But I think what Quoyle sees in her, is that she has something he doesn't have. She is so very alive. She is sensual--and I mean more than in a sexual way, she eats as if everything is the best thing she's ever tasted. She does what she pleases in life as if there is no one but her. She notices Quoyle staring at her and says to him, "You want to marry me, don't you?" And, after a romp in bed, he blurts out that he loves her. He loves her. And they marry and she is soon pregnant. She doesn't want anything to do with her child. Quoyle is the one who takes care of her while Petal continues her wild ways, including bringing men home to her bed. And what does Quoyle of the rubber backbone do after a night when Petal has done just that? Asks her, "Did your friend leave?" Yes, you'll cringe to see Quoyle accept this kind of treatment from Petal, but it just goes to show how hopeless he is.
Things turn around when an aunt (Judi Dench) that he never knew steps into his life, and they go to New Foundland together (the land of Quoyle's ancestors). Quoyle who used to be a printsetter at the paper in his old town, gets a job as a journalist for the little town's newspaper. A job he doesn't really think he can do, but has no choice. He has to write stories about car accidents, when there are no fishing stories, and in order to sell papers learns to turn dull stories into alluring headlines. Soon, everything that happens in this town in New Foundland holds a germ of a story idea for Quoyle and evokes great headlines as well. Little by little you see Quoyle begin to step out of his dream-like stupor and grow strong. One of my favorites lines in the movie comes after Quoyle writes an article about a nazi boat. It's probably the first time he is ever praised by anyone. He proclaims to himself, "Lumbering Idiot Stuns Crowd for a change." And you want to cheer.
I like this movie because to me it's a testament of hope that no matter what your beginnings are in life, no matter what your mistakes, you can overcome. You can be better. You can be somebody. You can be happy. I've probably given enough away, but check out The Shipping News. (And try the book too!)
Movie Review: A Beautiful, Gentle GEM!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Kevin Spacey first snapped my attention as Mel Proffit on the CBS telly series WISEGUY. He played a drug dealing, jet-setting, psycho that went around killing people, freaking out and saying things like "only the toes knows...". Well, if the toes knew, they must have know what a big star Spacey would be in just a few years. He choses films that stretch his untouchable range in the Usual Suspects, the serial killer in 7, the gentle soul claiming to be an alien in the wonderfully moving K-Pax to this gem of a film The Shipping News. This was a gentle, loving, heart-lifting book, so I feared when it came to the screen, all the quirkiness that made it so special might be lost. Instead, it is beautiful realised under Spacey brilliant performance, backed by the ever eternal and radiant Juliana Moore and the utterly marvellous Judy Dench and the solid Pete Postlethwaite, and another super tour de force for the ever solid Scott Glen.This is a story that touches your heart, the way so many of Hollywood films fail to do, and leave you smiling at the end, and maybe even leaves you missing these near friends you have come to love. It is good to see films like that do so well, just a shame there is not more.
It is brilliantly written, with all the quirkiness you find in a small knit community, the isolation tend to make the locals revel in their bizarre personalities and even sort of wear them like a badge. I have seen this same 'wee tight isle' in Scotland and in Ireland and small towns in the US. Everyone knows everyone - knows the history as far back as it goes. The past is not so distant, where people with the sight is just an everyday occurrence.
Kevin Spacey plays a gentle soul, driven by an overbearing, likely abusive father to believing he was nothing. He felt the world pasted him by until Petal jumped into his car. Petal is typical Hussy type, a lass out for fun and little else. For the first time, Kevin's character feels that he no invisible. Petal gets pregnant, have a baby girl, Bunny, and then precedes to live life just as she always had, with good time guys and honky-tonks. She checks in long enough to upset Spacey, and pat the kid on the head. When the child is about 8, she slips away with child in tow, running away with the latest boyfriend. If that is not upsetting enough, Spacey's father and mother decided life is the pits and check out.
In the midst of finding out Petal died in a car crash with her boyfriend, but sold Bunny to a black-market child adoption ring for six thousand dollars, Spacey's long lost aunt,(Dench) turns up to steal her brothers ashes. (Won't reveal what she does with them!! She encourages Spacey to take his daughter and move back to New Foundland to where his family comes from. Once there his daughter shows tendencies of 'the sight' but it is taken in stride.
Scott Glen owns the local paper and hired Spacey to write the shipping news. He fears failure in this, since Petal just reinforced his worthlessness instilled by his father. However, instead, he comes into his own. He also begins a tentative romance with Moore, with his daughter taking to her son, who suffered brain damage during birth.
Spacey faces his demons and learns to heal, as Dench confronts her own secrets and shames, and loves to move on.
The scenery is gorgeous, raining and foggy ( sorry I am a Scot and love a bit of the wet and fog makes me want to walk in it forever. This captures the moodiness, though the snow in May does make one shudder!)
This is just one beautiful movie. You cannot say anything higher.
Movie Review: Great actors as interesting characters in familiar storyline
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Shipping News" is one of those films where I find myself compelled to go out and read the novel, because you get the feeling that there is just so much more out there about these characters. However, if you listen to the commentary track on the DVD version of this film you will probably here more than you want to about what else is in the book and what they changed/omitted/added from the book than you might possibly want to know. Anyhow, this time around we are talking about Lasse Hallstrom's film.The story of "The Shipping News" is certainly nothing new: a weary man, R. G. Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) beaten down by life returns to the home of his father and finds an entirely new life. What makes the story work are the place and the characters. What makes the film work is the scenery and the actors. After a whirlwind introduction to Quoyle and the disaster his life has become, he and his daughter Bunny are taken under the wing of his Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench), who suddenly appears on his doorstep after the suicide of his father. Her solution is to take Quoyle to Newfoundland where he finds himself suddenly working for the "Gammy Bird," the local newspaper, where he is supposed to write the Shipping News. Everyone at the newspaper is a colorful character (Gordon Pinset as Billy Pretty is my favorite of the lot) and there is Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore), a widow lady who runs the local day care and whose life story is almost as sad as Quoyle's. Then we throw into the mix the strange green house cabled to the point and the rather brutal history of the family Quoyle.
Obviously the guy is going to get the girl in this film, but the romance aspect of "The Shipping News" is such a slow and torturous dance that you are compelled to root for this couple to drop their barriers and finally find each other (this was where the unpredictable elements of the film's predictable storyline won me over). Meanwhile each performance in this film is pretty much an exquisite little character study. For my money Kevin Spacey is the finest actor working in films today and his performance as Quoyle is simply unlike anything you have seen him do to date. This is a subtle performance of a man waking from what has been essentially a lifelong dream to join the real world. Like Spacey, Judi Dench's best scenes involve silence, where a look becomes more eloquent than dialogue. Julianne Moore turns in an understated performance that matches this pair, while Cate Blanchett in a small but pivotal role as Petal gives the film its initial emotional charge. Scott Glenn as Jack Buggit, owner and publisher of the "Gammy Bird" provides the strange opportunity for Quoyle to find a new life (while gutting fish at the same time).
I would be inclined to think that those who have admired the group of actors seen in this film from their previous performances will be more enamored with "The Shipping News" than those who come to it from having read E. Annie Proulx's novel. However, I like films in which I get the feeling there is much more to the characters, the story, and the world in which they live, which is why I feel so inclined to go read the novel and see what else went on up in Newfoundland with Quoyle and company. This is one of the better character studies to come down the road for a while and if that is you cup of tea, then definitely check out this film.
Movie Review: How to rewrite your life--with help from friends.
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a small, quirky character study with not much plot. This is my favorite kind of movie, but if it's not yours, you may hate this film.The acting here is all first rate. Kevin Spacey's character is more subdued but less bleak than the one he played in "American Beauty." Quoyle (Spacey) comes into adulthood a beaten-down, invisible lump, but life gives him a daughter to love, a job he becomes good at, a woman he can relate to as a friend (Julianne Moore), a family member (Judi Dench) who is encouraging to him, and a place to belong (Newfoundland). He is not so broken that he can't appreciate all this, so his transformation from lump to human being is believable, not schmaltzy or feel-good miraculous. I particularly enjoyed Quoyle's interior headline-writing as commentary on his life. It added a touch of ironic humor to the film.
Julianne Moore is brilliant and very different than I've seen her before. Here, she is strong, but sensitive and a little scared of another relationship with a man. She and Spacey stumble believably and amusingly in getting to know each other. Her affection for his daughter is an important element in his transformation.
Dench plays Spacey's aunt, one of the supporting characters, and does not dominate on screen as she usually does. This is okay because this is not her story, it's Quoyle's (Spacey's). However, the aunt is important in giving Quoyle a sense of family history and a connection to Newfoundland, where the aunt, Quoyle and his daughter go to live.
Cate Blanchett undoubtedly had fun playing Quoyle's bad girl wife and the mother of his child. She has more range and screen presence than any actress of her generation. Her place in this story is as a harmful influence on Quoyle and his daughter, badly twisting both of their self-images, but her impact is believable and pivotal to their (the father and daughter's) relationship.
The other supporting characters, his daughter and the men at the newspaper office where Quoyle works, are all fine. Rhys Ifans (Hugh Grant's roommate in "Nottinghill") is warm and funny as Quoyle's buddy at the paper.
The scenery of Newfoundland very much controls the mood of the film. It's beautiful, but scary and daunting. So is life. Both can be appreciated and enjoyed if you accept what is and build on that for the future.
It's a wonderful movie. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: how to get things under control ...
Summary: 5 Stars
Annie Proulx, she has a very much endowed vein for fine-intimately spoken humor. Her novel SHIPPING NEWS won the Pulitzer Prize. The Swedish director Lasse Hallström ("The Cider House Rules", "What's eating Gilbert Grape" and "Chocolat") brought it full of genius to screen. It is a MUST to see the scene, where the ancestors of Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) are pulling by rope their house across the ice. The pictures shot on location (Killick-Claw, a Newfoundland harbor town) are simply wonderful. But at first you have to endure the coming in-chapter: a bad life in New York, where Quoyle is overwhelmed by hussy type Petal (Cate Blanchett), a wild, hot-blooded woman, wearing a ton of make-up and short rubber mini-skirts, always looking for excitement with good time guys and honky-tonks, by whom Quoyle has a child, Bunny. Petal soon dies in a car crash with one of her boyfriends, short after Bunny was sold by her to a black-market child adoption ring for six thousand dollars. Moreover Quoyle's parents commit suicide. In this terrible situation (daughter Bunny is found by police) Aunt Agnes Hamm (Judi Dench) appears and Quoyle is convinced by her to move to their ancestral home on the Newfoundland coast. Quoyle takes a job as a reporter for the local newspaper The Gammy Bird and starts to rebuild his life, though the weight of an awful past bears down. Encouraged by the publisher Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn) and by Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore), the owner of a day care center, Quoyle has to change his loser-life fighting against his demons and the demons of his ancestors. Also Aunt Angie or the "widow" Wavey have their nightmares, but together they get all problems under control. For example the mobbing of an oil-tanker-adoring journalist (Pete Postlethwaite) or getting overboard without a life-belt or losing the house tethered on a storm-wracked cliff during a heavy, cathartic storm. (And at the side there is a romance between Quoyle's daughter Bunny and Moore's son, who suffered brain damage during birth.) Spacey and Moore are wonderful as they, at her lowest point, try to overcome their damaged hearts and love once more. So they all recover from the terrors of their past lives, especially Quoyle's transformation from passive victim into a whole human being is heart-felt. It is good to see films like that, just a shame there is not more.