The Shipping News

source: The Shipping News

After seeing Chocolat and Gilbert Grape I knew Hallstrom will deliver a movie and an original story. Hollywood is jealous I think. In Shipping News he tells us the story of an broken man who wants his normal life back. But a man with no knowledge of his past is like a tree with no roots. Costarring with Kevin Spacey (Choyle) is Judy Denche and Julianne Moore. This amazing trio really prove of they are made of. I would recommend this movie to anyone that like spiritual stories and stories about hope. Hope is something not a lot of people have on this planet. Isn't it? I gave this movie a 10 and its worth it.

As a film about feelings, one cannot go wrong with "Shipping News". It has all of the power and impact of a socially redeemable film. The cinematography is intriguing. The casting is outstanding, with a real academy award performance by Kevin Spacey. Judi Dench is worth seeing in her pristine performance as well.

The Shipping News is smooth sailing of a movie. About a man who is lost in life and does not direction to take after his wife dies. His aunt visits him and travels to his ancestral home. He is faced with personal demons and begins a new life in Newfoundland. I like the movie as well as the book. You cannot put every detail in the movie that was in the book. I wish director would have point out certain parts more than others. Lasse Hallstrom did a nice job of directing this movie. Kevin Spacey did excellent job as usual acting and Judi Dench from Chocolat did a superb acting. It is a good movie but I like Chocolat better.

I am a movie goer who likes to be entertained and this movie is far from being entertaining. I can only sum it up by a scene near the end of the film where the daughter says to her dad, "I'm boring". At that point several people seated around me including myself said, "She should be watching this movie". Excellent scenery though.

This film has some of the more tragically disturbed characters I have ever seen grace (if that's the word) the silver screen in recent years. Unlike the bulk of Hollywood films that are either uplifting or deal with glamorous personages, this film deals with people who haven't found the good life and are emotionally damaged. Kudos to a truly all-star cast for bringing this difficult material to life. While the acting is first rate and the drama is intriguing, I think most people will be too timid to face this material. Still if you are looking for a change of pace from the standard Hollywood fare, this drama might be worthwhile. I think it was directed by the same man who made the wonderful Cider House Rules. 7/10.

The initial presentation of the protagonist for me laid no basis at all for his later accomplishments. The view of Newfoundland is very unpleasant - I hate to think it's that bleak. though I have no personal knowledge of the place. It's hard for me to believe that a newspaper like the one portrayed could possibly afford all that staff and support an absentee owner too. The sea part of the film contained not one but two highly improbable survivals from disastrous situations. Sorry to see all that talent wasted. I found "The Widow of St. Pierre" (I hope I have the title of the Binoche film right) a lot more interesting and believable about the same neighborhood.

This movie has everything the book couldn't capture. Stellar performances from all of the cast. Brilliant screen play based on a dark, enigmatic novel brings a little hope to the end of the day. You feel Newfoundland in this movie and you know the Atlantic perhaps better than you understood it in A Perfect Storm. There are curses to be overcome in this story and who better to lead you through them than Kevin Spacey with endearing performances from Gordon Pinsent, Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn and Rhys Ifans. If you couldn't get through Annie Proulx' novel, you owe it to her and the crew of this movie to watch this! Lasse Hallström did well, boy!

The characters, the situations, and everything were ridiculous. The worst movie I have seen this year. Given the minimum is 10 lines of text for a review, it will be a challenge to elaborate on just how stupid this movie is. The situations are an insult to the intelligence of anyone over the age of 5. If it was meant to be exaggerated reality (as in "Big Fish") it was executed horribly. Maybe it was a comedy... All I know was this was really rotten, and it got all this positive hype. Don't believe the hype! Rent a good movie instead! If you don't listen and watch this anyway then watch for people falling into the North Atlantic and not dying of hypothermia and sleeping in a shack in sub-zero temperatures barely covered... there. 10 lines.

Depressingly familiar attempt at a moving film. We've seen all of this before. Locate in a quirky undiscovered town where the locals are genuine people with charming folklore. Have an implausible romance - kevin spacey's character is about as attractive to women I would imagine as a tickle from a wet kipper - and throw in a bit of manipulated suspense. I haven't read the book although I am a fan of Proulx so I can only imagine that this is simply a shocking adaptation. Either that or Proulx has genuinely lost her marbles.