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THE SHIPPING NEWS When it comes to awards season, director Lasse Hallstrom has become Miramax Films' go-to guy: His past two releases, The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, both earned Best Picture Oscar nominations. Whether this one makes it three-for-three remains to be seen, but the Academy could do worse than toss votes at this tasteful adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Kevin Spacey delivers a soft, sensitive turn as Quoyle, a meek man who returns to his family's Newfoundland home after his slatternly wife (Cate Blanchett) dies in a car accident. Backed by his headstrong aunt (Judi Dench), he tries to build a new life for himself -- he accepts a job at a newspaper and courts a local widow (Julianne Moore) -- but he soon discovers that dark secrets from the past stand poised to undermine any chance at happiness. Hallstrom largely stifled his own creative impulses with the stridently plainclothes Chocolat, but working in tandem with cinematographer Oliver Stapleton, he comes up with some unusual storytelling techniques that serve to deepen the emotional relevancy rather than cheapen it. A sober tale of redemption that's frequently punctuated with quick bursts of mordant humor, the film effectively overcomes a certain calculatedness that creeps into its more melodramatic moments.

SNOW DOGS Stars often follow up their Oscar-winning performances with an embarrassment or two -- take the case of Shirley MacLaine, whose first film after winning for Terms of Endearment was Cannonball Run II -- but Jerry Maguire victor Cuba Gooding Jr. can't seem to put the brakes on his career skid: This bow-wow is just the latest in a steady stream of turkeys that also includes What Dreams May Come, Rat Race and Pearl Harbor. Gooding's a charismatic actor but also an unrepentant ham: I haven't seen the art of shameless mugging endorsed this wholeheartedly since the heyday of Jerry Lewis (or possibly even Joe E. Brown). Here, he lets out screech after screech and takes pratfall after pratfall in a dorky Disney comedy about a Miami dentist who inherits an Alaskan snow dog team. With the notable exception of Babe, Hollywood's FX wizards still haven't mastered the technique of anthropomorphizing animals: As in last summer's Cats & Dogs, seeing canines wink and talk is more creepy than cute, and the gnawing feeling is that these creatures would be more at home in an Omen sequel than a typically bland family film from Disney. 1/2