The Shipping News
Miramax Films | Release Date: December 25, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
18
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Everything has a fusty, embalmed quality: Whatever gave the novel its vitality has been smothered. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
This morbid and self-consciously literary adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer-winning novel is no crowd pleaser. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's a portrayal so unconvincing it makes it close to impossible for the rest of the film to function as intended. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Has a quiet sense of community, a wry, unsentimental sweetness, that grows on you. It's a patient movie for impatient times.
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Kevin Spacey's pinched portrayal of Quoyle as a scared palooka rarely transcends its own artifice.
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Despite its haunting artistry and its winning eccentricities, The Shipping News is a vehicle that's still very much at sea. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Doesn't really work but has a good cast and great craggy ocean-framed scenery. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
But, lord, the characters are tireless in their peculiarities; it's as if the movie took the most colorful folks in Lake Wobegon, dehydrated them, concentrated the granules, shipped them to Newfoundland, reconstituted them with Molson's and issued them Canadian passports. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A limp and sodden downer. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Hasn't got quite the right sound as it did in Annie Proulx's novel.
40
SalonCharles Taylor
Spacey mucks up an otherwise pretty and pleasantly vague take on E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Beside its major virtues, it contains a vice: that one flat lead performance. Who would have thought Kevin Spacey would ever go dull on us? Read full review
50
Village VoiceJessica Winter
In lieu of vaporous message-mongering, the languid, episodic narrative -- centering on hapless sadsack Quoyle (Spacey) -- streams along by the gentle force of a convincing melancholic undertow, a dejection and longing that's not so much surmounted as sustained. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Spacey is endearing, bringing his shy character to life despite glaring psychological gaps in the screenplay. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
The Shipping News is good news, but not as good as it could have been.
40
The New YorkerDavid Denby
In the movie's best moments, the misery has a comic lilt to it. [28 Jan 2002, p. 90]
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
It's hardly possible to overstate what a welcome change of pace The Shipping News is for admirers of Kevin Spacey. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Awash in hackneyed old-time secrets and hydrophobic metaphor, never consumes us as it should. Read full review
10
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The language is leaden, the pace glacial and the characters indecipherable. It's easier to read the actors -- they all seem eager to win an Oscar. Fat chance. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
This atmosphere-heavy drama, with its comfortably quirky characters, elegant performances, and ever shifting tone, is so innocuous it's not worth panning. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
It's a consistently entertaining story. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Seems to be playing the author's music, but like a string quartet that plays a half-beat off. Read full review
50
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
A passive film, playing it quiet and safe, hoping that the viewer will extend some good will towards it. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The choice made by Kevin Spacey in taking on the role of Quoyle in the film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Shipping News nearly sinks it. But not quite. Read full review
90
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
Hallström has leavened the story's bleakness with great warmth, fashioning one of the finest films of the year. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Spacey is nobody's idea of a goodhearted innocent, and I wonder why nobody has told him he'll blow his career if he keeps trying to pass himself off as Mr. Sensitive. It's time to go back to playing assholes. That's what he's good at, and that's why we love him. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
In a time when even the best of big Hollywood movies all seem to be mired in a certain nagging, unimaginative visual sameness, this one dares to take us to a place we haven't been before. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Stays engaging, chiefly, through the textured, ambiguous performances of Spacey, Moore and Dench. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Watching the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx on the big screen is like being on an ocean liner stuck on a glacier.
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The final product is soft at the center, a rustic cinematic greeting card. Read full review
70
Washington PostRita Kempley
It's worth seeing at the very least because it is so different from standard Hollywood fare. Read full review
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