THE SHIPPING NEWS -- Lasse Hallström, dir

©2001
production company: Miramax Films
dir: Lasse Hallström
cast: Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Pete Postlethwaite,
screenplay: Robert Nelson Jacobs
based on a novel by E. Annie Proulx

An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.

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I wanted to like this film, but found it unnecessarily confusing and odd. All along I thought that perhaps the Kavin Spacey character was "slow," but this was never developed or answered, and yet it might have made a difference.

Judi Dench was quite wonderful, but the fact that she held a dark secret was not revealed until much too late in the movie. And the little girl's "gift" ... is this important? Yes! Is it developed? No!

Some great possibilities here, and the novel is probably quite wonderful based on this potential, but a failure to follow through.

Skip it and read the book.