Review of The Shipping News (2001) by Zack B — 16 Sep 2014

I think a major issue is the casting. Judi Dench is perhaps the one exception. She fits perfectly into her role, much different from her usual roles. Cate Blanchett is great as she always is, but I think her talents would have been better suited in Julianne Moore's role.

In fact, they should be switched. Kevin Spacey does what he can with Quoyle, but ultimately Quoyle's inner resilience didn't quite come out for me like it did in the book. In the end, reading the book is far more invigorating than watching the film, which is rather dry and never really effective.