Directed by Lasse Hallström
Novel by E. Annie Proulx
Screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs

Kevin Spacey .... Quoyle
Julianne Moore .... Wavey
Judi Dench .... Agnis
Scott Glenn .... Jack Buggit
Rhys Ifans .... Nutbeem
Pete Postlethwaite .... Tert X. Card
Cate Blanchett .... Petal Bear
Jason Behr .... Dennis Buggit
Gordon Pinsent .... Billy Pretty

Produced by Rob Cowan (producer), Linda Goldstein Knowlton (producer), Leslie Holleran (producer), Michele Platt (associate producer), Diana Pokorny (co-producer), Irwin Winkler (producer)
Original music by Christopher Young
Cinematography by Oliver Stapleton
Film Editing by Andrew Mondshein

MPAA Rating R
- for some language, sexuality and disturbing images

What does it mean to be banished from Eden? We often look to Genesis 3 as a story of the Fall of humankind. And we are often taught that the sin in the Garden is why we live as we do. This is our nature. In The Shipping News, we see what a toll living in that sense of fallenness can take.

Quoyle is a major wimp, pushed around by his father, by life, by his wife. After the traumatic death of his wife, he goes with his daughter and long lost aunt to the ancestral home in Newfoundland. They move into the old family house that has been empty for 50 years. To withstand the winds and rain, the house is tied down at the four corners. Even in the most foul Newfoundland weather, this house goes nowhere.

Even though the family left years ago, the townspeople immediately accept him as a Quoyle. But he really has no idea what that means. As time goes by, he begins to discover the sins of his family. He discovers that the house was not built where it now stands, rather it was built on another island and hauled across the ice after the Quoyles were banished for their evil. And the evil didn't end with that banishment. We keep discovering more and more about the sins of this family. Do the sins of the family fall to later generations? Is that evil something in their nature?

Quoyle often has a sense of drowning, reliving being pushed into the water as a child in an attempt to teach him to swim. He is, in a sense, drowning in his life and in his history. Always in these scenes of drowning, he is passive as the waters rise up and engulf him, as though there is nothing he can do about it. But as he lives among these people and grows within himself, there is an opening for him to move beyond his fears and suffering.

So, let's get back to being banished from Eden. There is within Christianity the idea of a fallen humanity -- that we are by nature fallen and sinful. There really isn't much we can do about it; we're human. And we've been given the guilt of Adam and Eve's sin, just as the Quoyles carried their house with them when they were banished. We set that house up and strengthen it so it can never fall.

But the Gospel is not that we are fallen, but that fallen humanity is set free. We are not bound to our history and our nature. Rather, even though we live as exiles, we are not denied the joys of the Garden. They are just hidden in the life we struggle in. Just as in the story of Eden we see our fall, in the story of Christ, we find our salvation and reconciliation.

Lasse Hallström give us visually stunning pictures of the ice-covered islands of Newfoundland. At first it is hard to think of such places as the Garden. But just as the Garden may be hidden in our lives waiting to be recognized, so too does the landscape in The Shipping News yield its beauty when Quoyle discovers a new life in this community and love that can bring joy and fulfillment.

NEWFOUNDLAND!
Subject: THE SHIPPING NEWS
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002
From: "leola haley"

Hi, I just read your review on THE SHIPPING NEWS and i wanted to point out a mistake you have made. The movie was filmed in Newfoundland which is a province in Canada. Nova Scotia is another seperate province in canada. we have provinces whereas you have states. Newfoundland is NOT in Nova Scotia. It is an entirely different part of the country. The film, in fact, was shot in a small fishing village in Newfoundland, Canada. I just thought I would let you know this fact in case you wanted to correct this mistake.
Thank You.
Leola Haley
( a proud Newfoundlander)

Response: Thanks! We fixed the error, it was in the synopsis supplied by the studio.-David

NEWFOUNDLAND IS A PROVINCE!
Subject: The Shipping News
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002
From: "Heather Clarke"

Whoever wrote this commentary screwed up the location. It's not "the fishing village Newfounldland, Nova Scotia". Newfoundland and Nova scotia are both seperate provinces(provinces=states) within the country, Canada.In "The Shipping News" , the small fishing village is called Killack Claw ( reference to Quoyle's Point also) , Newfoundland. Hope this helps clarify things.
Jodie Clarke
St. John's, Newfoundland

Response: Thanks! We fixed the error, it was in the synopsis supplied by the studio.-David