Mad Ship

2012

1 hr. 34 min.

Drama

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Reviews

20%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

A Scandinavian immigrant is driven to madness after his wife dies. He starts building a homemade ship to sail out of the prairie dust bowl during the Great Depression.

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Audience Member

Its starts out sad, and gets worse.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

I hung in for about 15 minutes, which seemed 10 minutes too long. The barn was fancier than most actual homesteaders' houses were. As the granddaughter of Prairie homesteaders, I had to switch off when the husband went into an epic rant.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

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dave j

Wednesday, January 8, 2013 (2012) Mad Ship DRAMA We've seen this like hundred times before except that this version is probably the dullest and most depressing. Takes place during the Great Depression with Scandinavian immigrant Cameron(Gil Bellows) bleak reality keeping farm functioning since he used his house for collateral to pay back a loan to the bank. So he goes to town seeking for some work leaving his wife and kids to fend for themselves. Take my word for it, it doesn't get any better. And the brief glimpse scene at the beginning is also part of the end where Cameron is dragging a ship. Parts of this movie seems like it was inspired by a book written by a Robin Hobb novel. 1 star out of 4

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

Madship is like a crossbreed between a Steinbeck novel, all the covers from every Beverly Lewis book and a period drama playing on the History Channel. If it had a bigger budget I imagine the bank worker would be Kevin Spacey.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

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Audience Member

A frustratingly uneven film shot around Winnipeg. A Scandinavian immigrant farmer loses everything during the Depression and in desperation and madness, builds a ship out of his house and barn to take his family home. A beautiful looking and poetic film that almost completely fails to capture the period it's set in. Perhaps the relatively low budget is to blame, but it never feels like anything more than modern folks playing at being in the 1930s. Script problems also plague the film. It takes so long to get to the building of the titular ship, that the event feels really abbreviated and anti-climactic.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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David Mortin

Director

Rachel Blanchard

Adeline

Gil Bellows

Cameron

Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Tomas

Gage Munroe

Petter

Martha Burns

Judith

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Michael Posner

Globe and Mail

Alas, not unlike the boat on which the tale is based, it's a jerry-built craft that never really gets launched.

Rated: 2/4

Mar 29, 2013

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Linda Barnard

Toronto Star

Director David Mortin loses us with this beautifully shot, if relentlessly depressing, story.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 28, 2013

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Katherine Monk

Canada.com

At times, Mad Ship is mesmerizing. And at other times, it's maddening because Mortin creates so much allure through texture and character, we begin to expect a better payoff.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 28, 2013

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Nathalie Atkinson

National Post

There are many other fine moments of cinematic poetry, if only Marshall could be more consistent with them.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 28, 2013

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Synopsis

A Scandinavian immigrant is driven to madness after his wife dies. He starts building a homemade ship to sail out of the prairie dust bowl during the Great Depression.

Director: David Mortin
Executive Producer: John G. Carbone, Daniel Iron, Phyllis Laing, Mark Sanders, Knut Skoglund
Screenwriter: David Mortin, Patricia Fogliato
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 30, 2017

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