The novel in which this film is based, was a joy to read. The treatment that it gets on screen, is a different story. Lasse Hallstrom's version of The Shipping News leaves one very cold, by the way the director has dealt with the material and actors.
One wonders what Ms. Proulx thought about the finished product and of the job of the screenwriter's adaptation of this difficult novel? All the elements of the novel are displayed, yet, I found it without 'soul', or maybe a center, or a clear direction of what the author was telling us. No doubt, this is a very difficult work to translate in cinema terms. It's a sure bet that Robert Nelson Jacob had his very good intentions in giving us the essence of the book. Sometimes he succeeds, and sometimes he fails.
The main character, Quoyle, is a man whose life has passed him by and has not met someone to share his lonely existence. His life with Petal is just a mess. He certainly picked a winner who obviously, couldn't care less about him. She's a self-centered person. She's incapable of giving anything in return to her husband and so she goes having fun with any man that might appear in the horizon. Kevin Spacey fares better in this film than in his most recent work. He definitely underplays the character to the point of exasperation, as we would like to see him stop being the nincompoop he portrays and become the man one wants him to be.
On the other hand, Julianne Moore's Wavey Prowse is a mousy woman who is in the same league as Quoyle. She's been left with a son in such a desolate spot of the world that when Quoyle appears in her life, she's hesitant to take what's coming her way. It's very difficult, at times, to understand her, as she has adopted a brogue that's as thick as some of the fog in the area.
In translating the novel to the screen, the role of the aunt, Agnis Hamm has been expanded, no doubt to let Dame Judi Dench do her turn, as the woman who has been the object of a horrible deed in her past, at the hand of a loved one. It's a treat to see this actress dispose of the ashes of the brother in such an unflattering, matter-of-fact way.
The film could have been helped if it had been trimmed a bit. The locations in Newfoundland are very impressive indeed with the ruggedness of the landscape and the climate they have to put up with.
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