THE SHIPPING NEWS

US, 2001, 115 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Pete Postlethwaite, Gordon Pinsent.
Directed by Lasse Hellstrom.

The Shipping News was filmed on location in the towns and on the coast of Newfoundland where it is set. The location photography makes for an authentically wild and sometimes desolate atmosphere. Christopher Young's score, with its use of pipes, whistles, strings and hurdy-gurdy, has a Celtic sound that evokes the original lands of the settlers of Newfoundland.

Novelist E. Annie Proulx won a Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News. It has been adapted for the screen by Robert Nelson Jacobs who also wrote the screenplay for Chocolat for director, Lasse Hallstrom. After his international success with My Life as a Dog, Hallstrom moved to the United States where he made successful films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules. Hallstrom's European background gives him an outsider's view of North America and the empathy of someone who has migrated there.

Kevin Spacey proves once again how versatile an actor he is. In Consenting Adults, Seven and The Usual Suspects, he portrayed evil. In American Beauty, he portrayed despair, in LA Confidential, cynicism. Here he plays what Quoyle refers to as 'a broken man'. But he also shows convincingly how such a man can grow when given the opportunity and given affirmation. Julianne Moore gives a kind and restrained performance with Judi Dench as the hardened Aunt Agnis. Cate Blanchett, almost unrecognisable, does an energetic cameo as Petal.

Lasse Halstrom has used water as a symbol throughout the film: Quoyle's almost drowning as a boy, the images at the opening when the young Quoyle in the pool is transformed into the adult Quoyle at his various jobs but still seen as if he is drowning, a bed suddenly submerging in water, frequent rain, Quoyle's sailing and his being marooned, floating in the sea. With the harsh history of the Quoyle family, it is as if he is possessed by an original sin of which he must be cleansed. He has to know his roots and the 'broken man' must be healed.

1. The adaptation of a popular novel? The focus on characters, environment, finding roots, examining the past, transformation for a future?

2. The New York State settings, Poughkeepsie, the transition to Newfoundland, the island, the cliffs and the sea, the town, the snow and the weather, the seasons? The musical score and its Celtic background? Contributing to the atmosphere?

3. The opening and the focus on Quoyle? His voice-over, his being a boy, his father pushing him into the pool, his being unable to dog-paddle, his staying in the water despite his father's calling, the visual transformation into the adult Quoyle, the range of his jobs, the adult who still seemed to be drowning? His work as an ink setter? His lack of self-esteem, Kevin Spacey's performance, embodying this lack of confidence? Manner, body language, verbal? His working as an ink setter, being satisfied with his work, talking to his work companions?

4. The transformation with Petal: sitting in his car, watching Petal and her clash, her getting into the car, telling him to go, eating, voracious, his fascination with her, the sexual encounter, his exhaustion, her marrying him, pregnancy and her careless reaction, the transition to the little girl, Bunny, Petal and her men friends, going out of the house? Petal's appearance, make-up, goodtime girl? Her clothes? Not wanting Quoyle to touch her, changing into the jeans, the showing clothes? Ringing up, getting tired of Quoyle, finding him boring? Taking Bunny, her disappearance? His anxiety, his waiting for his daughter?

5. The news of his father's decision to commit suicide, the voice on the phone, Quoyle's lack of reaction, going to the funeral, the two urns? Agnes arriving and compounding the difficulty, her listening to him?

6. Bunny and the return, the car accident and its visuals, Petal's death? Yet her still haunting him, especially in his relationship with Wavey? On the sea and his hallucination? His need to let go of her? Bunny and her being unwilling to believe that her mother was dead?

7. Agnes, her age and experience, arrival, the decision to stay and help? Her changing the ashes in the urn - and her later taking them to the outhouse and the ultimate humiliation? The later revelation of the reasons, Cousin Nolan telling Quoyle, his father, the rape, the pregnancy? Agnes having to leave, the photo of herself with her daughter and her love for her daughter? Her feeling that she would turn to stone if anyone knew the truth? The Newfoundland background of the Quoyles, pirates, changing the lights and the ships crashing, the looting, nailing the man and taking his nose? The visualisation of these scenes? The people casting out the Quoyles, exiling them, their dragging the house across the ice and establishing it on the cliff?

8. Agnes and her persuading Quoyle to go to Newfoundland? The trip and the scenery? The house and nobody living in it for so many years? The decision to stay there? Quoyle and his eagerness to discover his roots, gradually finding out the truth, especially from Bill Pretty? His being possessed by a kind of family original sin and his needing to be cleansed and healed? His father and his abuse within this family context?

9. Quoyle getting the job on the newspaper, his interactions with Card, his being employed, clashing? Jack and his employing him? Nutbeam and Bill on the staff? Their work in the office, the growing friendships, confidences? Quoyle and the shipping news, the basic information, Jack urging him to write stories? The encounter with the couple on Hitler's yacht? His writing the story, Card and his resentment? Hoping it would backfire? Jack and his wife enjoying the story, urging Quoyle to write more? The story about the tanker and the oil, Card's anger and twisting it completely? His expecting Quoyle to be sacked? The discussions with Jack, the rewriting of the article - but the hanging of the oil tanker picture on the wall? The shunning of Card by the others in the hotel? Tensions at the office?

10. Quoyle and Bunny and his taking her to the childcare centre, Wavey and her son on the boat, his discussions with her, making the mistake about supervision? Her later making the mistake about the status of the paper? Wavey and her background, the townspeople's sympathy, the later revelation of the truth about her husband leaving, her fabricating the story and sinking his boat? Her unwillingness to tell Quoyle the truth? Harry and his birth, disabled? Bunny and the friendship, reading to him, playing with him? Wavey grateful for this friendship?

11. Agnes on the island, work, the couple who wouldn't pay from the yacht? Her gradually settling in, the armchair from the looted ships? Her not wanting to dwell in the past, making a future? Her settling down, support of Quoyle and Bunny?

12. Bunny, playing with Harry, cool with her father, bashing the doll? Quoyle wondering about her sanity? The storm, her ability to see things, the house blowing away, the wake and her final acceptance that her mother was dead?

13. Quoyle not being a water person, the images of the bed sinking, his dreams of drowning, the Quoyles and the sea? His getting the boat, others urging him to get a better one? Going out, seeing Jack on the sea? Going out with Bill Pretty? By himself, the headless corpse, the capsized boat, waiting in the sea, almost drowning, the rescue? The storms and the rain? His gradually changing, his acknowledging his demons and facing the sea?

14. Quoyle and his relationship with Wavey, their friendship, at the hotel, the fin pie? At home? After the burning of Nutbeam's boat, his being drunk, Wavey ousting him? His taunting her, the truth about her marriage? His going to her? His not imagining Petal? Their future together?

15. Jack, the editor, fishing, the curse of the family and the drownings, his not allowing his son to go out on the water, Dennis and the building, his wife, taking Quoyle and Bunny in? Friendship with the journalists? The good spirits, Nutbeam and his sailing background, wanting to go to Brazil, rebuilding the junk, the party, the hacking and burning of the boat? Nutbeam staying?

16. The build-up to the resolution, the storm, its ominous signs, the blowing away of the house? Having to build a future?

17. The eeriness of Newfoundland, the settlers, their barbaric ways, sexual abuse and its consequences, Cousin Nolan and his being the survivor and haunting the house, superstitions with the knots?

18. Portrait of people, portrait of a broken man, acknowledging his brokenness, being healed, learning to love and make a future?