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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A satisfying movie experience, a film you admire for its reluctance to turn up the dramatic heat. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: I like good newspaper movies. Most of them get it completely wrong. In this case, it's exactly right. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The nominally emotional moments feel unearned, partially because many of the book's edges and eccentricities have been softened. Read more
Susan Stark, Detroit News: A quiet, penetrating marvel of a movie. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The story line's strength and resilience allow the film to rebound from lumpish storytelling and one major miscasting. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Hallstrom ... has always been excellent with scenery and ensemble casts, and Shipping News, besides its great Trinity Blight vistas, has another incredible ensemble. Read more
Stephen Holden, New York Times: Instead of giving you the book, it leaves you with the unfulfilled sense of having leafed through an elegant, studiously captioned photo essay of the same material. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: Hallstrom injects a little magic realism here, a fantasy flashback there, but without Proulx's language, what's left is a pretty pedestrian tale. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A meticulous and often moving adaptation from Lasse Hallstrom. Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: By and large, it's a solid film. Read more
Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: The acting is first-rate, and deeply moving at times. However, it takes the patience of Job to get to the end. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A limp and sodden downer. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Hallstrom has fashioned a disjointed movie full of strong performances and some powerful individual scenes. Read more
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie has a modest but true feeling for the ways in which people are formed by the ravages of their natural surroundings. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: A movie that engrosses, hypnotizes and clings to the memory long after the final frame. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I am baffled by all the negativity surrounding it, and I am prepared to designate it as the most underrated film of 2001. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Deals with weighty issues and is intellectually intriguing, but I found myself uninvolved from start to finish. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Relentlessly colorful and cute. Read more
Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Where The Cider House Rules was one of the most exquisite examples of classical Hollywood filmmaking in years, Chocolat was no more than a trite, pleasant trifle. The Shipping News, well made as it is, isn't even up to that standard. Read more
Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle: It's hardly possible to overstate what a welcome change of pace The Shipping News is for admirers of Kevin Spacey. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The interior monologues and intense detail of the book don't transfer well to the big screen. When a guy is this bored with himself, why should we argue otherwise? Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: Moves at a glacial pace, much like the icy land it's set in. And even a top-notch cast can't warm up the atmosphere. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: [L]ike a string quartet performing a half-beat off, the team behind Chocolat only occasionally captures the story's essential tones of absurd tragedy and comedy. Read more
Jessica Winter, Village Voice: The fable-telling here is more attuned to character and largely apolitical. Read more