Release Date:
01/04/2002
If you removed the storm from The Perfect Storm, the movie youd be left with might resemble The Shipping News. The tale of a loser (Kevin Spacey, trying to become to pathetic half-men what Gary Oldman is to psychopaths) who moves to a remote fishing village in Newfoundland, its a collection of really great actors (Spacey, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Scott Glenn, and Dame Judi Dench) in a not-so-really great movie.While The Shipping News is far from terrible, it does feel like a several hundred page novel condensed with little skill. Events that are no doubt powerful on paper dont translate to screen when theyre rushed and chopped up. For example, Blanchetts character has only a few scenes and they all make her seem pointless, random, and not at all as memorable as shes supposed to be. Luckily, Blanchett can console herself with the 40 other movies shes been in recently. Set against the please shoot me in the head with a speargun bleakness of Newfoundland, Shipping News throws enough quirky locals, effective imagery, and subtle humor to salvage some entertainment value, but really cant shake the fact that its probably a better book than movie.