Article: 'Shipping News' sunk by weak Spacey.(Arts and Lifestyle)

"The Shipping News." Rated R. At Loews Boston Common and suburban theaters.

Two and a half stars (out of four)

Movie acting always has been a form of popularity contest, to its frequent discredit. Kevin Spacey, who soared to acclaim if not superstardom on the dark wings of "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty," has gone on to star in the trite, derivative, generically uplifting "K-Pax," and now plays an overgrown Cabbage Patch Kid in "The Shipping News."

In Lasse Hallstrom's limp film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's beautifully written, carefully observed, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Spacey is Quoyle, a sad-sack Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ...

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