Rating: R
Genre:
Romance
Theatrical Release: 12/25/2001(USA
Release Date: 06/18/2002
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 111 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Miramax
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by
E. Annie Proulx becomes this
drama from director
Lasse Hallström.
Kevin Spacey stars as
Quoyle, a struggling, emotionally drained newspaper reporter suffering through a wretched marriage with the abusive
Petal (
Cate Blanchett), a promiscuous wild woman who tries to sell their daughter,
Bunny, into adoption before she's killed in a car wreck. Retrieving his daughter,
Quoyle sets out for Newfoundland, his ancestral home, with his long-lost
Aunt Agnis (
Judi Dench). Although he initially finds life on the island to be as forbidding and severe as
Agnis herself,
Quoyle gets work as a shipping columnist for the local newspaper "The Gammy Bird," owned by eccentric fisherman
Jack Buggit (
Scott Glenn).
Quoyle's work soon finds an appreciative audience and he begins to rebuild his life, dating local single mother
Wavey (
Julianne Moore), learning some sea craft, discovering his family's dark history, and finally earning some self-respect.
Agnis, in the meantime, starts her own successful business and faces a traumatic incident from her childhood involving
Quoyle's late father.
The Shipping News (2001) co-stars
Rhys Ifans and
Pete Postlethwaite.
~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide