Barnes & Noble

E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel springs to life in this colorful adaptation directed by Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) and enacted by an especially noteworthy ensemble. Kevin Spacey, cast against type, plays a meek printer whose already unsatisfactory life gets worse when his slutty wife (an almost unrecognizable Cate Blanchett) and elderly parents die in short order. Persuaded by his feisty aunt (Judi Dench) to join her in rehabilitating the old family homestead in an oddball community on Newfoundland's coast, the glum widower and his young daughter move to the isolated village with hopes of a new beginning. Proulx's baroque novel -- thought to be unfilmable by many -- is simplified by Hallström and screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, who address themselves to filling the screen with delightfully eccentric characters. Julianne Moore makes a spirited leading lady, while goofy Rhys Ifans, dour Pete Postlethwaite, and laconic Scott Glenn all log notable performances. Apparently determined to keep viewers off balance, Hallström varies the film's mood from scene to scene; the cute and quirky rub shoulders with the depressing and macabre, and ancient mysteries jostle with humorous revelations. The end result is a movie that's as unpredictable as it is engrossing. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx becomes this drama from director Lasse Hallström. Kevin Spacey stars as Quoyle, a struggling, emotionally drained newspaper reporter suffering through a wretched marriage with the abusive Petal (Cate Blanchett), a promiscuous wild woman who tries to sell their daughter, Bunny, into adoption before she's killed in a car wreck. Retrieving his daughter, Quoyle sets out for Newfoundland, his ancestral home, with his long-lost Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench). Although he initially finds life on the island to be as forbidding and severe as Agnis herself, Quoyle gets work as a shipping columnist for the local newspaper "The Gammy Bird," owned by eccentric fisherman Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn). Quoyle's work soon finds an appreciative audience and he begins to rebuild his life, dating local single mother Wavey (Julianne Moore), learning some sea craft, discovering his family's dark history, and finally earning some self-respect. Agnis, in the meantime, starts her own successful business and faces a traumatic incident from her childhood involving Quoyle's late father. The Shipping News (2001) co-stars Rhys Ifans and Pete Postlethwaite. Karl Williams

San Francisco Chronicle

It's hardly possible to overstate what a welcome change of pace The Shipping News is for admirers of Kevin Spacey. Bob Graham

New York Observer

A movie that engrosses, hypnotizes and clings to the memory long after the final frame. Rex Reed

Product Details

• UPC: 786936165470
• Source: MIRAMAX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: Español
• Time: 1:51:00
• Sales Rank: 8,857

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• The Shipping News & The Cider House Rules

Features:

DVD MENU