AFTER American Beauty, Kevin Spacey plays another man on the cusp of change, only this time it is not a self-imposed regime and nor is he looking back from beyond the grave.

Instead, playing Quoyle, an unsuccessful New York journalist with a simple soul, he is coming to terms with the death of his cheating trailor-trash wife (Cate Blanchett, far better in a sluttish cameo here than in the grey Charlotte Gray).

After her reckless, heartless ways come to an end in a car accident, he is left to bring up his young daughter in financially shrivelled circumstances, and he is in no position to turn down the demand of his domineering Aunt Agnes (Judi Dench) that he should return to the cold bosom of his Newfoundland ancestors in a small, austere fishing village.

Home for dad and daughter will be the dilapidated family house once pulled across the ice by his family and now lashed down with ropes to prevent it from disappearing over the cliffs. Mind you, given his disastrous marriage and far from promising new surroundings, he might wish to head that way himself after encountering the frosty, cantankerous aunt (the outstanding Dame Judi of York with a part Irish, part Canadian accent and a stare to freeze a volcano).

Quoyle lands a job at the local paper, The Gammy Bird, writing up car crashes, obituaries and a quirky column in the company of an editor (Scott Glenn) more keen on fishing than fishing out stories and a bunch of drifters (Englishman Pete Postlethwaite with an American accent, Welshman Rhys Ifans with an English one). There is gentle humour here amid point-scoring office jealousies and a slow-ticking potential romance with single mum, earth mother and school teacher Wavey (Julianne Moore).

Yet all the while, darkness envelops the family tree: something about a dubious past that Aunt Agnis slowly unveils.

Directed by Cider House Rules and Chocolat director Lasse Halstrom with the attention to detail of E Annie Proulx's novel and beautifully filmed too, The Shipping News is a whimsical tale of dysfunctional lives in a small, claustrophobic place. It makes small points to match that setting, seeking warmth amid the icy chill, never deeply profound but with the ring of truth. As all journalists know, every family has a story to tell, often dark rather than light despite the Martyn Lewis wish for good news only.

Updated: 08:44 Friday, March 08, 2002