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Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), the hero of Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning story, is a man at the end of his rope.
He was abandoned by his wife Petal (Cate Blanchett) a couple of months after their marriage, but she stuck around to humiliate and cuckold him for another six years.
She even convinced their daughter Bunny (played by triplets Alyssa, Kaitlyn and Lauren Gainer) that Quoyle was a useless father and a boring man.
It's no wonder Quoyle has no self-confidence, direction or purpose in life. It takes Agnis Hamm (Judi Dench), the aunt he never knew, to drag him back to Killick-Claw, his ancestral home in Newfoundland.
He never thought he could write or be creative, but Jack Buggit needs a new reporter for The Gammy Bird and hires Quoyle.
His simple heartfelt way of reporting hits a nerve with the readers.
In Wavey (Julianne Moore), Quoyle meets a kindred spirit. She, too, has been hurt and abandoned and her young son is mentally challenged.
The compelling thing about Proulx's story is that every major character has a secret backstory that is leaked out slowly like essential pieces of an intriguing puzzle. The audiences sees the puzzle coming together through Quoyle's eyes and Spacey is so convincing he draws us into Quoyle's many dilemmas.
It's another masterful performance from one of America's premier actors and it is accomplished with such economy and restraint.
Once again, Dench commands every scene she's in, making Agnis a hard, bitter woman with a devastating secret, and Blanchett continues to prove she is a consummate chameleon.
Director Lasse Hallstrom will likely get his third best picture nomination in as many years.
The Shipping News shares many of the same elements as The Cider House Rules. Hallstrom is a master storyteller and, in Proulx's The Shipping News, he has a grand tale to tell.
(This film is rated AA)