This movie is as shallow as they come and hardly worthy of a rental fee. The bleak Canadian coastline stole the show in my opinion. I don't even remember much about the music. They over used a few lines like: "I'm not a water person," and something like "tea is a good drink; it keeps you going." I never developed any sort of an emotional bond with these characters. It was easy to understand their turmoil and difficulties from an intellectual point-of-view, but I never felt along with them even though the characters were pretty down to earth type people. This story is about surviving adversity, healing and self-discovery.
The Shipping News is about surviving adversity through adaptation. Which for me is not very inspiring. None of the characters in this film undergo a sudden transformation as a result of circumstances. Instead, they change gradually, as circumstances dictate. Quoyle becomes more assertive, Agnis confronts a dark secret in her past, Wavey learns to open up, and Bunny becomes able to move forward without her mother. There is guilt and redemption, although little cleansing as a result of the latter. It was hard for me to connect with Quoyle because in spite of his traumatic childhood memory in which Quoyle's father attempts a sink-or-swim experiment with his boy, who remains submerged for decades in humiliation and self-loathing, plagued by dreams of drowning. As an adult, Quoyle is over apologetic and is not much more than a sack of potatoes just going through life to die. It is almost as though he overcomes his problems by accident. Which of course in real life is not the way it usually works out. I think that for me this movie is an example of what not to do in order to overcome traumatic experiences in ones own life. I think that to wait for accidents or miracles to happen is not going to help the situation.
This movie was also filled with symbolism, as shallow as it may seem.