47
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaDespite its haunting artistry and its winning eccentricities, The Shipping News is a vehicle that's still very much at sea.
- 60NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenHas a quiet sense of community, a wry, unsentimental sweetness, that grows on you. It's a patient movie for impatient times.
- 50TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghEverything has a fusty, embalmed quality: Whatever gave the novel its vitality has been smothered.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickThis morbid and self-consciously literary adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer-winning novel is no crowd pleaser.
- 50SlateDavid EdelsteinSlateDavid EdelsteinDoesn't really work but has a good cast and great craggy ocean-framed scenery.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertBut, 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.
- 50Baltimore SunMichael SragowBaltimore SunMichael SragowHasn't got quite the right sound as it did in Annie Proulx's novel.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanA limp and sodden downer.
- 40Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternKevin Spacey's pinched portrayal of Quoyle as a scared palooka rarely transcends its own artifice.
- 30Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranIt's a portrayal so unconvincing it makes it close to impossible for the rest of the film to function as intended.