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The Shipping NewsRating:
Release Date: 11 June, 2001 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $13.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
The Shipping News Reviews
Arc de Triomphe
Noah's Arc
Joan of Arc
Arc! Who goes there?? A ghost with a white dog! Arrrr!
Every character in this movie arcs to the point of defying gravity. One arcs so steeply, he comes back to life after being dead for several hours.
Definition of a character's arc: an extended or continuing storyline (per wikipedia). It is the personal progression or change a character exhibits. In Punch Drunk Love, Adam Sandler's arc is from an overly passive user of phone porn to an ass-kicking lover.
This film is way worth seeing but not a classic.
A story about Quoyle, a man who no one believed in. Not his father, not his wife, not himself. A man haunted by the sins of his forefathers, freak circumstance brings him back to the land of his said ancestors; a remote, cold, wind blown island whose bedrock rests in the ancient curses of a boisterous past. After landing a job at the local paper, his new unassuming boss displays belief in Quoyle and the winds of change start a blowin'. Quoyle, and almost every other character in the film, starts to over come their painful debilitating past.
Go and rent the DVD. You'll be glad you did.
Disjointed
A few years ago, I read a collection of short stories about life on Nova Scotia by Alistair MacLeod. It was called "Island" and it had many divergent stories held together by the common thread of the narrator. Taken one at a time or as a whole, it was an excellent book. I was reminded of "Island" as I watched "The Shipping News" the other night. I don't think that "The Shipping News" set out to be a collection of short stories with a common narrator but that is how it came across. The main character, played schizophrenicly by Kevin Spacey, is involved in many things but the sequence of events lacks any sense of continuity. There ARE scenes that inter-relate with prior scenes; sometimes with good effect. However, most of them serve to distract rather than amplify. As a result, I came away from "The Shipping News" with a sense that it was an opportunity wasted.
I did not read "The Shipping News" so I have no idea if the movie was a disappoinment or an improvement to its' readers. I was disappointed in the Spacey character because he evolved, as an adult, a bit too much to be credible to me. I realize that the point was intended to show the development of a fellow human being who blossoms when others stop putting him down. However, this just didn't work, for me. There were family secrets that were shared that seemed, at times, to really have substance. At other times they were so extreme that they came across as ridiculous. The supporting cast was often either hard to figure out or so simple that either extreme came across as a disappointment. An incestuous relationship in the past was shown with exceptional brilliance yet it was counter-balanced by an inter-office feud that looked like out-takes from "Married with Children". My rating of "3 stars" was a compromise of debating over whether it should be 2 or 4. This is another one of those rare movies where the prime suspect is the film editor.
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