Movies - The Shipping News

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	Movies - The Shipping News

The Shipping News is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (ISBN 068485791X) by E. Annie Proulx which was published in 1993, and a film of the same name, released in 2001, set on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.

The story centers on Quoyle, a hack journalist from New York whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland. Shortly after the suicide of his parents, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive wife Petal sells their two daughters to a child pornography photographer and attempts to leave the city and her husband. Petal and her lover are soon thereafter found dead in a car accident and the two children are located by police. Despite the safe return of his children, Quoyle's life is collapsing and his paternal aunt Agnis Hamm convinces him to return to life in their ancestral home of Newfoundland for a new beginning.

Through previous work contacts, he obtains work as a car-accident reporter for the Gammy Bird, local newspaper of the town of Killick-Claw. The Gammy Bird's editor also asks him to document the shipping news, arrivals and departures from the local port, which soon grows into Quoyle's signature articles on boats of interest in the harbour.

Quoyle gradually makes friends within the community, learns about his own troubled family background, and begins a relationship with a local woman, Wavey. Quoyle's growth in confidence and emotional strength, as well as his ability to be comfortable in a loving relationship become the main focus for the book.

The film climaxes with a storm which destroys the Quoyle's ancestral family home and almost drowns the Gammy Bird's editor Jack Buggit, caught in the rope of a lobster pot while fishing. Though thought dead, at Buggit's wake it is found that the man was actually in a coma, regaining consciousness in front of a large crowd of mourners, central to the theme of rebirth in the optimistic ending of the story.

Film version

The film was directed by Lasse Hallström and stars Kevin Spacey as the protagonist Quoyle, Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm and Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse. It also stars Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Cate Blanchett, Jason Behr, and Gordon Pinsent.

The film makes a multitude of changes from the book, notably: Quoyle had two daughters in the novel, but only one in the film, in the film he does not begin working as a reporter until after arriving in Newfoundland, and a number of characters such the younger Buggit family were deleted or merged.

Some critics felt that three significant themes were not fully realised in the movie: Quoyle learning that love could be comfortable rather than painful, Quoyle growing from being a bumbling incompetent to being a competent manager, and his daughter Bunny learning about death (while overcoming her fears and learning to be more secure in the process).

The film drew some criticism within Canada for what some saw as stereotyped portrayals of Newfoundlanders, although a number of themes from the book, such as the allegations of incest reported in the newspaper were toned down significantly in the screenplay.

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