Article: `Shipping News' offers Spacey not at his best.(B)(Metropolitan)(Life)(Movies)

Byline: Gary Arnold

"The Shipping News" reinforces the impressions already made by "American Beauty," "Pay It Forward" and "K-Pax": Actor Kevin Spacey is likely to be more fun as a sneak and a menace than as an object of sentiment or pity. Maybe it's time to rediscover the threatening Mr. Spacey of "Seven," "The Usual Suspects" and "A Bug's Life."

Unfortunately, "The Shipping News," derived from the 1993 novel that won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, proves as immune to cinematic gratification as "A Thousand Acres," "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction." Those films also played malicious with the heartaches and family ties of small-town ...

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