Comedy, drama, and really messed up stuff blend together seamlessly in
The Shipping News, Kevin Spacey''s best movie
since
American Beauty.
The Shipping News tells the story of a man who moves to Newfoundland with his daughter after his estranged wife is killed, and ends up falling in love with one of the locals. But this is not a love story by any stretch of the imagination; it is a story about life and death, and a lot of other stuff that is too crazy to describe.
The Shipping News caught me off guard for plenty of reasons; I was expecting a drama about a man trying to make a new go at things in a strange environment. In some respects, that is exactly what this movie is about. However, that plotline is only the string that guides all of the other story arcs along. There is a love story going on, but there are also stories about the dark pasts of the locals. And when I say dark, I mean hideously twisted and strange.