Reel Critics

Ray Buffer

An outstanding cast is showcased in the Lasse Hallstrom film, “The

Shipping News.”

Kevin Spacey plays Quoyle, a man who has lost all aspirations and

motivations. While living life on autopilot, he encounters a woman named

Petal, played by Cate Blanchett. She blesses him with a child, Bunny,

played by triplets Alyssa, Kaitlyn and Lauren Gainer. After several years

of promiscuity and prostitution, Petal decides to run off with one of her

beaus and sells Bunny in a black market adoption. This is where the real

story begins.

After working as an ink-setter for a newspaper in Poughkeepsie, New

York for several years, Quoyle finds himself at a fork in the road.

Quoyle’s Aung Agnis, played by Dame Judi Dench, invites him to make a

brand new start of it in old Newfoundland, the land of his forefathers.

Secrets and superstitions are explored and unraveled as Quoyle learns

what it is to live his life forward realizing he does not need to be

trapped by his past or suffocated by the sins of those who preceded him.

Spacey plays the role masterfully. Rounding out the superb supporting

cast are Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse, a local schoolteacher and mother

of a mentally disabled son. Scott Glenn as Jack Buggit, a local fisherman

who also owns the town’s only newspaper, “The Gammy Bird,” where Quoyle

is hired not as an ink-setter but as a reporter on “the shipping news.”

Pete Postlethwaite as Tert Card, a rascally, likable antagonist who also

works at the village paper.

Screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs admirably adapts Annie Proulx’s

Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, taking several liberties with the story

while sustaining the prime message of renewal.

Some find Hallstrom’s method of storytelling to be slow and

cumbersome. However, I found the pacing of this outing to be superior to

that of his other works, “Chocolat” and “The Cider House Rules.” I was

captivated by every moment displayed and the geography of Newfoundland

provided a unique monochromatic backdrop, which allowed one to focus

intently on characterizations and messages.

“The Shipping News” is rated R due to its mild spattering of

profanity, and some adult situations, which are also used sparingly.

* RAY BUFFER, 31, is a professional singer, actor and voice-over

artist.