The Shipping News
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Movie Reviews of The Shipping News
Movie Review: Spacey and Hallstrom shine in a moving story
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Lasse Halstrom continues to prove himself to be outstanding at presenting sensitive human dramas with this touching film about a broken man's retreat to his ancestral roots. This poignant tale unwinds deliberately and delicately as each of the main characters shares his or her dark secrets buried in the past.Halstrom is an inspired actors' director who entices outstanding performances from his troupe. He has a wonderful ability to make simple characters appear bigger than life. I continue to admire his unobtrusive presentation, forgoing ostentatious directorial stylizing in favor of simple shots that let the story and the characters dominate. The cinematography and choice of locations in this film are understated and lovely without the need for garishness.
The acting is superb. Kevin Spacey, as Quoyle, once again shows his range, taking on an emotionally crippled character that is quite unlike the confident and clever characters that jump off his resume. Spacey relinquishes all traces of the cockiness that is his trademark and brilliantly renders a pathetic nebbish whose greatest daily struggle is to overcome his own ennui. For Spacey to suppress his natural dynamism to slip this character on so effectively is a testimony to his excellence as an actor.
While this is clearly Spacey's film, the supporting cast of accomplished veterans weaves a splendid tapestry. Julianne Moore is excellent as Quoyle's love interest with a delicate portrayal of a character that is simultaneously supportive and insecure. Judi Dench is marvelous as Quoyle's crusty old aunt, who drags him back to Newfoundland to find himself among the ashes of his unseemly clan. Cate Blanchett is bodacious as the impulsive vamp who ravishes Quoyle and stays with him only long enough to give him a daughter. Scott Glenn is terrific as the cantankerous publisher of the local newspaper who turns Quoyle from a typesetter into a reporter.
This film is not for everyone. It is extremely deliberate and will fray the patience of the average viewer. However, for those who have a love of human interest stories with flawed but lovable characters, this will be a treat. I rated it a 9/10. It is a gem of human foibles and interactions that is moving and insightful.
Movie Review: Lovely, Timeless Character Study Of A Man On The Edge!
Summary: 5 Stars
Kevin Spacey works well into this thought-provoking tale of man gone back to try to find his place in the scheme of things, a man returning in search of his roots. Given the fact that doing so requires Spacey to abandon his usual self-confident demeanor and ostentatious panache in favor of a more confused and self-tortured inaction and doubt, this is a meaningful departure from his previous work. Yet he does so with more than enough skill, tact, and craftsmanship to make the central character quite believable. This is critically important, as this film is really a character study of the Spacey character and of his tortured efforts to try to find a way out of the box life has placed him in, to try to rediscover himself. The supporting cast is memorable, as well, with the lovely Julianne Moore providing a comely yet intriguingly flawed love interest sufficient to both interest and attract this cold fish up a bit. Also, Dame Judy Dench is absolutely superb playing his curmudgeonly old aunt, a woman substantial enough to literally drag Quoyle back to his remote ancestral digs in coastal Newfoundland to help him search for his place in the family pantheon. Scott Glenn is also very good as a local newspaper publisher who sees potential in Quoyle and thus lures him into his world, as does the lovely Cate Blanchett, who promptly seduces Quoyle into a little lesson in love and regret.
I really like this film as it takes the time and energy required to turn an off-beat character study into a memorable story, one we can all relate to, and one full of the pathos and pity that life is too often writ with. It is not a particularly fast-paced movie, and those looking for a quick pace or a lot of action best look elsewhere. But if you want to take some time to spend in looking deliberately and provocatively at many facets that make up a complex and evolving human being, this movie won't steer you wrong. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Lasse Hallstrom's finest yet
Summary: 5 Stars
I had heard and read so many negative reviews of this film that it took me some time to break down and rent the DVD. I am glad I did. For some time, I've been put off Kevin Spacey who seemed like he was about to make a career in films in which he predominantly "smirked" in a performance, BUT in this film, Spacey shows what a fine actor he can be. As I watched "The Shipping News," I began to realize that what separated me from the negative reviewers was basic and significant: I am not in love with my own cynicism.
The Shipping News as a novel was long and tedious, poetic, yet lacking in tension and dynamic. As a film, it has been dramatized and life breathed into the stories by the excellent actors, screenwriter, and director. As a film, I believe to appreciate it, the viewer has to have been in the shoes and lived some of what the characters have lived through, yet survived. Have you ever felt people ignored you because you were boring? Or shunned you because of something "bad" that happened to you, through no fault of your own? Have you ever hoped for a "second chance" at life? Then you'll identify with this film.
The stark nature of Newfoundland, in all its pitiless weather and beauty, is a rich character in the film, too, so if you think of yourself only as a cosmopolitan city-dweller who believes "country folk" are buffons and simpletons, you'll see nothing to entertain you in The Shipping News. Or if you're the type to whom films are just explosions, special effects, and faked sex, ignore this film. However, if you have something left of a poetic soul, if you still yearn for the hope that the spirit can be healed by adversity and the support of those around you, if you believe that given a little help from friends and your own determination, you CAN build a life for yourself---then see this film.
Movie Review: A Movie That Touches On Everything Human
Summary: 5 Stars
Is it possible to touch on darn near every human experience in a 111 minute film? One wouldn't think so, but Lasse Halsstrom (director) does so with stunning clarity. The film is about Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), a man broken apart by an unsatisfying marriage to a [witch] (played excellently by Cate Blanchett). Before the marriage ends, they have a child, Bunny -- who is the highlight of her father's life -- and the mother is killed in a car accident. Coincidentally, Quoyle's "mother" and father were killed very recently, too.
Enter Agnes Quoyle (Judi Dench), Quoyle's "aunt" who's heard about the death of her "nephews" parents and is there when news of the death of Bunny's mother arrives. It is clear from the outset that Agnes doesn't want to hang around, but feels compelled to when she sees her "nephew" fall apart in front of his daughter. She recommends that he and his child come with her to Newfoundland, to discover a new life for themselves....
The trouble is, is that their old life also awaits them in Newfoundland. Agnes is not -- exactly -- as she appears to be, nor is Quoyle's family. Quoyle soon discovers his family lineage: Piracy and wickedness. And he soon finds a new love interest who is just as broken as he is (Julianne Moore).
A curse on their native house in Newfoundland, ghosts, a sixth-sense that some natives have (that comes alive in Quoyle's daughter, too, as the days slip past), homosexuality, incest, murder, family bonds, and a beautifully austere landscape round out much of the story. Didn't I tell you this film had it all? Well...now you'll just have to go and see it for youself! And please do.
A remarkable tribute to film making.
A+ rating.
Movie Review: Shipping News is worth Every Penny
Summary: 5 Stars
This is amongst my favorite Kevin Spacey films,one of a series of excellent oscar nominated films he has been in in the last few years.If you've ever had that feeling that you grew up somewhere you did'nt belong,and have always felt that you were ment for something better,this film will have every last ounce of your attention drawn to it.
Spacey plays a man who has lived a dysfunctional childhood that messily runs into his adult life.His father being abusive obviously offers no help,other than to remind him how much of a failure&disappointment his son is.Stripped of almost everything most of us take for granted...one day...Spacey meets his wife to be.A woman(played by Cate Blanchet)that none of us would tollerate a relationship with.
Through time,they are married&have a child.Blanchet's character is someone who will use you up for all you have&can give,and will toss you aside when a new oportunity arrives.She suddenly dies durring one of her capers...something of which was bad timing along with the death of both Spacey's parrents.A long lost Aunt(Judy Dench)comes by to pay her respects&take the ashes of Spacey's father home...to New Foundland.A place of which Spacey's character had never heard his father speak of.
Leaving in uncertainly and total confusuion,Spacey is a broken man,going back to a homeland he's has never been to.He goes to discover his roots,the past his father never spoke of and get that one thing back that was missing all his life.This is a fantastic film with an amazing cast.This story is essentially about healing oneself and starting over,and to the very end...you will feel a warm glow inside.