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Kevin Spacey (K-Pax) plays Quoyle, a man with such low self-esteem he can't comprehend being with a beautiful woman.  The guy works as an ink man at a newspaper, a job that requires him to watch an assembly line and listen to music through earphones to drown out the sound of the presses.  Enter a gorgeous gal (an unrecognizable Cate Blanchett, Bandits) who hitches a ride with him and after a night of sex (he is stunned motionless) and a quick wedding, bears him a daughter.  One can readily see the marriage won't work but tragedy strikes first.  Suddenly, Quoyle is a widower with young daughter to support.  Enter another woman, this time a distant relative (Dame Judi Dench from Chocolat) who comes to pay her respects and ends up taking Kevin and child back to the family home in Newfoundland.  He finds a job at the local newspaper (called The Gammy Bird), writes a column on the shipping news, tries to fix up the family home that is rapidly falling apart, and also tries to keep his daughter from falling apart over losing her mother.

This is a mouthful for any film and director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules) does an admirable job with the help of photographer Oliver Stapleton, Christopher Young's soundtrack and a group of talented actors.  There is water everywhere in the film and, like life, it is either beautiful or dangerous.  It can be clean and reveal secrets or be cloudy and conceal secrets.  As we move through the film, we see that virtually everyone in the story has a secret to hide. What happens when these deep, devastating secrets begin to surface is the the main current of the film.

Kevin Spacey gained a few pounds for this film and it fits him comfortably.  He moves slowly, thoughtfully and not quite sure of himself.  His daughter is a handful and his relative Agnis (Dench) strives to keep the girl in check.  Julianne Moore is the widow with a handicapped child who runs the local school and she has her hands full, too.  Life in a small town and working on a small town newspaper are aptly portrayed.  My favorite part is Spacey's first day on the job.  He walks in and wants to know where his computer is.  The staff point to a broken down typing table with equally decrepit manual typewriter on it and say, "There it is."  The front page is devoted to local auto accidents (a lone shoe by the side of the road is always an attention-getter) and the fish catch makes good copy.

In this setting, it is easy for  The Shipping News  to make its point about finding oneself in the least likely circumstances.  Wait until you see the family house here, the term, ohmygosh, comes to mind.

Copyright 2001 Marie Asner 1/6/2002