Miramax is releasing Lasse Hallstrom's The Shipping News during the last week of the year in order to qualify it for Oscar consideration -- particularly for its star, Kevin Spacey. Most reviewers suggest it will probably receive little consideration from ticket buyers. The writers all seem to agree that Oliver Stapleton's cinematography -- the location scenes were shot in Newfoundland -- is remarkably beautiful, given the desolate clime, but those images also serve to suggest metaphors for their criticism. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer refers to The Shipping News as "a movie with long stretches of dull portent, of wind-whooshing hollowness and watery sentiment." The film "seems as long and bleak as the Newfoundland winter," writes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. "The Shipping News moves at a glacial pace, much like the icy land it's set in," comments Claudia Puig in USA Today. Rita Kempley in the Washington Post begins her review with identical words, "The Shipping News moves at a glacial pace, thawing as gradually as its protagonist." And while Miramax has been attempting to build a buzz around Kevin Spacey's performance as the protagonist, a submissive, emotionally battered newspaper inkman, critics are not at all impressed. "Kevin Spacey can effortlessly play the smartest man in every movie. He is not as interesting while playing hapless," Roger Ebert writes in the Chicago Sun-Times. Similarly, Peter Howell comments in the Toronto Star: "As much as I admire Spacey's determination to stretch, I vastly prefer him in movies where he's cynical and quick-witted. Watching him play a dullard is about as exciting as seeing James Bond get his ass kicked." Stephen Holden in the New York Times writes: "We are aware at all times that the star is acting with a capital A. ... The performance, although technically skillful, is far too calculated and self-conscious for the actor to disappear into his role." Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News devotes nearly his entire review to deconstructing Spacey's performance, saying that the actor created "a hurdle" for director Hallstrom "by badly overacting [the character's] passivity." And Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times refers to Spacey's performance as "the key problem" of the movie. The role, Turan writes, "would be a challenge for any actor. But for Spacey, it means negating and obliterating the intelligence and endlessly faceted sharpness that are his most reliable assets. ... It's a portrayal so unconvincing it makes it close to impossible for the rest of the film to function as intended."