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The Shipping News (film)

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The Shipping News
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLasse Hallström
Screenplay byRobert Nelson Jacobs
Produced byRob Cowan
Leslie Holleran
Irwin J. Winkler
StarringKevin Spacey
Julianne Moore
Judi Dench
Cate Blanchett
CinematographyOliver Stapleton
Edited byAndrew Mondshein
Music byChristopher Young
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release date
  • December 18, 2001 (2001-12-18)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$38 million
Box office$24,690,441

The Shipping News is a 2001 drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Shipping News by Annie Proulx.

It stars Kevin Spacey as the protagonist Quoyle, Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm, and Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse. It also stars Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Cate Blanchett, Jason Behr, and Gordon Pinsent.

Overview

The film opens with Quoyle's father tossing him into water, expecting him to naturally swim. The image of Quoyle struggling to swim is reprised several times in later crises.

Flash forward to an adult Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), whose emotionally distant and promiscuous cheating wife runs off with a lover, only to soon die in a car accident, leaving him with their 6 year old daughter (whom she had sold off for six-thousand dollars.) Quoyle's Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) happens to be visiting when the news arrives; she is moving to the ancestral family home in Newfoundland. Realising he's at a total loss through grief, she offers to stay a few more days and help him through the crisis, then persuades Quoyle to move with her to Newfoundland when he's at a loss of what to do next.

Quoyle meets local resident Wavey Prowse (Julianne Moore), a widow with a pre-teen boy. The two children become friends and the two adults become friends and then more. Wavey has dark secrets in her past; but so does the Quoyle family.

The story climaxes with a storm which destroys the Quoyle home, and the Gammy Bird's editor Jack Buggit, caught in the rope of a lobster pot while fishing, is believed drowned. His body is recovered, appears to be dead, but is actually in a deep state of shock resulting from hypothermia. During his wake, at his home in front of mourners, he regains consciousness - (central to the theme of rebirth in the optimistic ending of the story.)

The film, while broadly following the plot of the book, makes several changes, notably: Quoyle was obese and had two daughters in the novel, but only one in the film. He's only a timid ink setter in the film and he does not begin writing as a brave reporter until after arriving in Newfoundland. Another difference is that several characters, such as the younger Buggit family, were deleted or merged.

Cast

Quoyle Point and Killick-Claw

Quoyle Point is a fictional point of land on the Newfoundland coast bearing the family name of the protagonist in both the book and the movie. The actual town used for "Killick-Claw" in the movie was New Bonaventure in the Trinity Bight area of Newfoundland. This area is home to approximately 2,000 Newfoundlanders, most of whom are descendants of 18th-century settlers from England's West Country, the Channel Islands and Southeast Ireland.

In the movie, Quoyle Point is a remote, spectacular site with a cove and dramatic cliffs. There is a desolate, weathered green house on the point, the old family home of the Quoyles. At some time in the past, the house had been dragged across the sea-ice from a neighboring island and cabled to the ground at the four corners to protect it from being blown away.

The film crew pre-built the green house on a stage in Halifax, Nova Scotia, disassembled it, transported it via ferry to Newfoundland, and then reassembled it piece-by-piece on 'Quoyle Point,' using snowmobiles so as not to disturb the natural location. All traces of it were removed at the end of filming.

Reception

Critical response

The Shipping News received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 55% rating, based on 130 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though solidly made and acted, The Shipping News is rather heavy-handed and dull, especially given the nature of its protagonist."[1] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[2]

Accolades

Won

Nominated

References

  1. ^ "The Shipping News (2001)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  2. ^ "The Shipping News". Metacritic. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
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