The Shipping News | Review

Hallström brings more of the same to dinner table.

Just in time for the holidays, and director Lasse Hallström is back with yet another book adaptation- this time E. Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer prize winning novel The Shipping News, a film in which studio execs from Miramax will push with their mighty Oscar marketing campaigns-much like they did with his previous two efforts with The Cider House Rules and Chocolat. The big question is- Will this one find its way into the hearts of the academy voters and cash in with the same commercial success as the previous duo?

In a series of fade in and fade outs, Hallström spoon feeds the viewer with a series of visual sketches of the protagonist’s life- Kevin Spacey (K-Pax) as Quoyle come across as a very weak human being with not much going for him. A batch of sad stories starting with his lousy childhood explained by one flashback sequence of him being taught how to swim with the old throw-you-in-the-lake-and-start-kicking-technique and a hello-goodbye flash-forward introduction to his present life as a struggling single parent who is treated like a bitch by his abusive wife Petal, played by Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings). With his wife out of the picture, and a visit of the lost relative Aunt Agnis Hamm, played by Judi Dench (Chocolat); the trio set-off from upstate New York up to the not-so-friendly weather of Canada’s Newfoundland. The new setting of a beat-up home-with an historical past- looks both tranquil and haunted near the jagged edge of rocks overlooking the violent sea. Flowered in surrounding white-capped landscapes-the shots are rich in texture and beautifully photographed by Oliver Stapleton who also worked on The Cider House Rules. Hallström, a purveyor of accounts dealing with the human condition, uses the protagonist’s challenged life history as a reference point throughout the film-and when minor changes in the character occur, they seem over-accentuated by Hallström for obvious dramatic purposes. The narrative is muddled around with a multitude of subplots, with no particular importance too the overall outcome of the story, but rather to the character development. The focus of the film is the plight of Quoyle- and as he unravels in his own family and town secrets, and slowly conquers his fear of the water, falls for the local day-care owner, red-headed Julianne Moore (Magnolia) and lands himself the type of job that gives him a reason to want to wake up and look forward to a brand new day. As a beat-reporter for a local newspaper, his assignments focus mainly on detailing the boats that come to dock-at this point you get the gist of the film’s title.

Much of Hallström recent success lingers on the charm factor-there is a small dose of it in this one with dolphin sandwiches and funny accents, but Spacey as the centre piece does not have the allure of a bright eyed Tobey Maguire or cute smile Juilette Binoche- while the rest of the cast of big names seem seasoned down. Don’t get me wrong, Hallström wants us to feel empathy for the character and rejoice in his baby step moments as the little engine that could, – but this eventually loses its charm and as a whole didn’t strike the cord in me in the way it intended to especially with this cluttered ness of irrelevant symbolic references and signifiers that seem unnecessary and sporadically placed with in the film. I think it is more a question of the film’s subplots-especially the inexplicably special powers of his daughter, her supernatural ability is treated with very little vigour and the fact that Hallström seems to simply graze the surface of the character’s predicament rather than digging knee-deep into it that make made me wince a little. Of course, this is one of those uplifting stories, and not that The Shipping News is a bad effort, but it is simply an unmoving experience and particularly, lacks in spirit .

Rating 1.5 stars