Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

Despite its haunting artistry and its winning eccentricities, The Shipping News is a vehicle that's still very much at sea.

Newsweek by David Ansen

Has a quiet sense of community, a wry, unsentimental sweetness, that grows on you. It's a patient movie for impatient times.

Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

Hasn't got quite the right sound as it did in Annie Proulx's novel.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger 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.

Slate by David Edelstein

Doesn't really work but has a good cast and great craggy ocean-framed scenery.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

This morbid and self-consciously literary adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer-winning novel is no crowd pleaser.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Everything has a fusty, embalmed quality: Whatever gave the novel its vitality has been smothered.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

A limp and sodden downer.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

Kevin Spacey's pinched portrayal of Quoyle as a scared palooka rarely transcends its own artifice.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

It's a portrayal so unconvincing it makes it close to impossible for the rest of the film to function as intended.