The Shipping News

Rating- * * * (3/5)

There are certain directors that have such a distinctive and particular style that you can instantly recognize them when you see one of their films. Sometimes this is a good thing because it means a director has a comfortable and unique shtick, something you can always work with and build upon. But this can also mean that the director has had tremendous success on his very first film and he has decided to create a formula from which all his future films will be built. Now, among the intellectual community in Hollywood, formula is a very dirty word; it means you have given up on any possibility of creative and unique thought working its way into your movies. Watching The Shipping News, I fear that the obviously gifted director Lasse Holstrom may have fallen into the Hollywood trap of “it worked once, let’s do it again.” Holstrom first rose to prominence with The Cider House Rules which earned much praise in Hollywood, as well as a few Oscars. His next project was another critical success, Chocolat, which also earned a Best Picture nomination and was similar to Cider House in its beautiful landscapes, colorful characters and touching storyline. Finally, we come to The Shipping News and unfortunately Holstrom does not seem to have made much progress as a director since his debut. Not that these aren’t good films; they are each one very entertaining, well acted and beautifully photographed. I just feel that a director who so clearly has the technical aspect of making a film down to a science should move on to finding an emotional center to his films, something that The Shipping News lacks. The story follows the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. It’s about a dreary, aimless man named Quoyle (played by the always brilliant Kevin Spacey) who marries a trashy tramp named Petal, has a daughter named Bunny (go figure), and decides that something needs to change when both of his parents and Petal all die nearly simultaneously. His aunt (Judy Dench) comes to visit the ashes of recently deceased brother and tells Quoyle that she is moving to the family’s ancestral home in Newfoundland. Quoyle decides to go with her and the three of them live together in a rickety old house that barely stands up. At this point, the film basically becomes the standard small-town, self-discovery movie as Quoyle takes a job with the local paper, falls in love with a local widow (Julianne Moore) and discovers surprising and disturbing secrets about his family history. There are a few fun anecdotal plot points, such as a man who spontaneously resurrects at his wake, and it’s all pretty warm and entertaining. It does, however, seem a little contrived especially in that all of the characters have some sort of remarkable quirk; not a single character can be just the straight guy or the nice guy. If I hadn’t seen a million other movies set in a small town with a plethora of colorful characters, I might have been more amused by this movie but the fact is that it just doesn’t bother to go against the grain. Holstrom is too afraid to leave the safety of his formula to be adventurous and create something that could truly be a memorable cinematic experience. Regardless of all the negative things I’ve just said, this is an entertaining and somewhat charming movie. Don’t look for any emotional depth or spiritual enlightenment that a truly great film would bring, but if you just want to get away to a neat little corner of the world and meet some interesting and quirky people, check it out.