Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Shipping News Blu-ray Movie Review

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Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 28, 2013

I got used to being invisible until someone noticed me.

The Shipping News feels like a more focused version of Beautiful Girls, telling a familiar story of personal discovery and forward life movement but with less character clutter and, therefore, fewer dramatic heave-ho's to worry about. In Beautiful Girls, a man goes home to find himself, but does so by choice. In The Shipping News, a man returns home to find himself, but only because terrible, curious, and coincidental circumstances -- never mind the strong arm of Dame Judy Dench -- force him to do so. In Beautiful Girls, life is discovered through a change of scenery and the process of living in a snowy Northeastern town. In The Shipping News, life is discovered through a change of scenery and the process of living in a snowy Newfoundland town, with the added bonus of a real closed-off guy going back to where his name is worth more than anything he could possibly offer, which is very little to begin with, anyway. The Shipping News isn't a miracle of a character study film, but it's a fine one nonetheless, based on E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It's a quality Drama about moving on, learning form the past, and allowing life experience to help shape a more positive future. It's a rags-to-riches story where the riches are self-confidence and even basic life functionality, not monetary wealth. In that way, it's a more rewarding dramatic experience and a journey worth taking with Kevin Spacey in one of his best performances yet.

Heave!

Quoyle (Spacey) is a lonely, quiet, go-nowhere sort whose life seems destined to be led alone, in the shadows, invisible, surviving by holding down dead-end, go-nowhere, scrape-by sort of odd jobs that he just hopes will be there next week. He's a college dropout and still holds a grudge against his father; he has yet to forgive him for a traumatic near-death drowning incident in his youth. Quoyle works as an ink man for the Poughkeepsie News. His job requires little more of him than to sit beside machinery, machinery that would deafen him were it not for his protective hearing device, and watch as the newspapers move on past him. One day, he witnesses a struggle between a man and a woman. The woman, whom he comes to learn is named Petal (Cate Blanchett), enters his vehicle and commands him to drive away. He treats her to lunch at her request. She proposes marriage, and the two sleep together. Years pass; Petal gives birth to a daughter they have named Bunny. But Petal treats Quoyle poorly; he's head over heels in love with her, but she prances around with other men and uses Quoyle only for the roof he keeps over hear -- and sometimes, her lover's -- head. One day, Quoyle learns that Petal has perished in an automobile accident and that, suddenly, he and Bunny are on their own. To complicate matters, he receives a mysterious phone call from his father and soon thereafter gets word of his mother and father's deaths.

Enter Aunt Agnis (Dench) who swoops up Quoyle and Bunny and strong-arms them to move back to Newfoundland where Quoyle's family has roots that run so deep the town is named Quoyle Point. They move into a house that's seen better days, to be kind. It's rotten and held together only by the strength of the cables keeping it upright. Weather leaks in and the house seems to do its best to keep people out. Yet Bunny sense's the house's past and feelings, like she belongs there. Quoyle seeks employment as an ink man at the local paper but, largely because of his name, is hired on by Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn) as a columnist with a mission to write fantastic stories about pending weather doom, boating tragedies, and grisly traffic accident scenes, all of which are far more commonplace than they should be at Quoyle Point. Of course, this doesn't sit well with Quoyle; he's "not a water man" and fears being reminded of Petal's death at every accident scene. Yet the more he writes, the better he gets, the more confidence he gains, more a man he becomes. He also meets the Point's daycare operator, Wavey (Julianne Moore), in whose company Quoyle continues to grow.

The Shipping News is never so overtly melodramatic to turn off its audiences. Instead, it finds a very nice balance between gently funny, darkly humorous, morbidly depressing, and oddly optimistic. Yet for such a roller coaster swing of emotions, the film balances them all quite beautifully, slowly lifting the heavy veil of depression and hopelessness as the main character finds his way past his fears and into a semblance of life. It's a good, positive journey of not really the search for something better, but of the way life just sort of arranges itself. It's not a movie about a man taking a leap of faith -- he's too frightened to step, let along jump -- but rather the process of life erasing a lifetime's worth of fears when life makes itself a necessary component of existence. Indeed, this is a movie that contrasts existing against living, and the progression from one to the other, the haze one leaves behind the the clarity the other brings. It's a simple, very well put-together movie that's as good because of its acting as it is the simple qualities of its source. Kevin Spacey is superb, and few actors could convincingly portray the very gradual shift in perception, focus, and understanding as well as he. The movie's landscape is covered in fantastic, very well lived-in and authentic performances; the crew at Quoyle's Newfoundland newspaper is particularly excellent as they interact in the very much long worked-in office and demonstrate a career's worth of camaraderie.

The Shipping News Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Shipping News falls into the "typical" Echo Bridge video quality release sort of "gray area" that's not that bad but far from perfect or even close to perfection. This is a middling, rather bland image -- and the movie's somewhat cold, bleak setting doesn't help matters -- that never really pops or offers much in the way of spectacular detail or clarity. The drab details occasionally showcase some nice worn-down textures -- the old house looks particularly beaten and battered with some quality paint chip and general weathered details -- that help accentuate various scenes. Facial and clothing details suffice but never really get further than that. There's a general blandness and flatness to the image. It's not particularly filmic, though light grain elements remain over much of the film. Colors are uninspired at best but handle that cold exterior well enough. Skin textures can look a little on the pale side, but black are generally stable. Light wear in the form of speckling is evident in places, but never in excess. Mild to severe edge halos are visible, but are not constants. Overall, this is a workable image but not one to use to showcase the best of Blu-ray.

The Shipping News Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Shipping News features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack that mirrors the video quality in that it's decent but not really noteworthy. The track struggles to recreate some of the film's critical ambient effects, whether minor or major. A lack of underwater immersion hurts the dramatic tension of the opening scene. A driving rain during the family's first stay in the decrepit house doesn't pull the listening audience into the rickety, leaky abode. Such scenes are crucial to establishing and understanding the film, and while the track handles them enough so as to not confuse the listening audience, it fails to really bring them into the movie and truly experience it. The track does seem to pick up a little more steam in a thunderstorm heard near the end of the movie, but only marginally so. Music plays with adequate front end spacing, but there's a muddiness to it that holds it back from two-channel perfection. Dialogue is clear and focused. This track gets the job done but it won't leave listeners with a lasting sonic memory.

The Shipping News Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Shipping News contains only one supplement entitled Behind the Scenes (SD, 23:31). In it, cast and crew speak on the "tapestry" of the film, adapting it from the novel, the work of the cast and crew, the plot, the setting and the shooting locales, and more.

The Shipping News Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Shipping News is a good little movie that shows the difference between merely existing and finding a place in life. It tells its story with both broad strokes to set the tale in motion and nuanced little touches to make it work. It's one of the better of its kind, a focused, honest, and only slightly surreal story that is told with care and acted exceptionally. Echo Bridge's Blu-ray release of The Shipping News features decent video and audio. One lengthy extra is included. Recommended on the strength of the film and the low selling price.