Review of The Weight of Water (2001) by Nc M — 10 Oct 2015

While I had high hopes for this film, if fell flat, from beginning to end. The apt acting on of Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley, Kathryn Bigelow and Josh Lucas (modern day love triangle) kept the story movie flowing and wanted me to finish it. I feel the acting of Sarah Polley (best of), Ciaran Hinds, Katrin Cartlidge and Vinessa Shaw was also very good, gave the feeling of self-isolation as well as the obvious isolation of living on a big rock (olden days love triangle).

Not to spoil the story line, which I felt it was very jumbled and unimaginative. A soon-to-be writer (Bigelow) and her famous poet husband (Penn) decide to take a "workation" with his brother (Lucas) and his current girlfriend du jour (Hurley) on his sloop racer. They travel off the coasts of New Hampshire to a small group of islands (the Shoals) in order to study an 1873 murder case that took place there. As well as I could have guessed, art imitates life with tragic consequences.

I do realize it is based on fact, somewhat on the old 19th Century murder case. But I feel that the film overstepped it's bounds with a denouement that was a true deus ex machina which I felt cheated (both in the modern and olden times stories). Overall, the film was trying to be daring and bold, while having some good scenes and dialogue, it was too opaque and really didn't deliver what it promised.