The Weight of Water | | Cast : | Catherine McCormack, Sarah Polley, Sean Penn, Josh Lucas, Elizabeth Hurley | | Director : | Kathryn Bigelow | | Studio : | Lions Gate Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 2000 | | DVD Released Date : | April 27, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 20, 2005 | | Summary | Surprisingly very good. | Content
 | Sean Penn keeps popping up everywhere I turn. He's like an infectious disease that won't stop. He wasn't in his place in The Interpreter, but here, in a bit role in The Weight of Water, he's right at home. Catherine McCormack does another good job (did I mention that it helps that she's amazingly hot?), and Elizabeth Hurley is oh so hot. I can't believe they put both of those women in the same film.
Right now, those of you who are women - or those men who are sissified - are probably bored to tears. Well, I'm not done, so give me one more minute of your hectic day, please.
The plot flips back and forth between the past and the present. McCormack's character - a photojournalist - is unraveling a hundred-year old crime while watching her poet husband(Sean Penn) lust over another woman(Hurley) on a boating outing. Well, as our protagonist digs deeper and deeper into the old crime, she begins to lose control on reality, seeing herself in the same situation as one of the possible killers from the unsolved mystery.
Good acting and a story that slowly engulfs. Plus, two incredible British hotties and a role that actually makes Sean Penn look great. What more do you need? |
| Rating | | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | ARE WE KIDDING? | Content
| YOU HAVE SEEN THE VARIED CONTROVERSY OVER THIS FILM AND THAT ALONE WILL TELL YOU THAT ITS WORTH WATCHING. IT'S A MUST SEE, END OF STORY. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 23, 2005 | | Summary | Water-logged | Content
| Whew! After reading other reviewer's remarks, I'm glad to see I was not the only one who thought this movie was crap. The cinematography is great, and the look (art direction) is authentic. I too had trouble following the double-storyline. Just when I started to get interested in the modern-day story, the action cut back to the past. I don't know if it was poor choices during the editing processes or what. I have seen many other movies that use flashback and dual-timeline stories. None of those were this boring. By the time you get to discover the real truth behind the century-old murders, you really don't care anymore. And I don't see how the climactic storm at sea resolves the modern-day storyline.
In terms of casting, I have to agree with the other reviewers: why cast two British actress as the modern-day leads. To me, the character of Jean should've been played with either an American actress (or at least a British or Australian actress with an American accent)instead of Catherine McCormick. I also couldn't begin to identify with the character. She seems so obsessed over this murder but completely inarticulate when discussing it (unless that's the point). Sean Penn sits around and broods as her husband, a has-been poet. Josh Lucas and Elizabeth Hurley (as Sean Penn's brother and the brother's girlfriend) really don't have much to do except add some eye candy (Josh for the ladies, and Elizabeth for the guys, and believe me, I kept wanting to see more of her in the bathing suit -- with and without the top). Some say Josh Lucas's acting is a bit wooden and stiff in this role; I say he has nothing to work with: the character is just there to steer the boat and give Hurley backrubs. He has no real personality quirks and Lucas works best when he plays someone who's a bit flawed (he is a rare case of a character actor who has leading-man good looks but bland roles don't suit him). Sean Penn, on the other hand, looks like he's sleepwalking through half the movie. His alcoholic poet seems more like he's stoned on Prozac; there's no passion, even when he quotes Dylan Thomas. I think this was a miscasting; he's not sympathetic either. (SPOILER ALERT: His character's fate during the storm is almost deserved; one cannot feel sympathy for him.)
The story set in the last century is much more interesting but because of the cut-up flashbacks, one doesn't hold interest. Sarah Polley is a good actress, but her moping around -- "Oh, I'm stuck in a loveless marriage, and I really want to sleep with my brother again," attitude gets old. Yes, dear viewers, I gave away another spoiler: incest. The other actors that play in the murder mystery story (aside from Polley and the great Ciaran Hinds as the wrongly accused murderer) are all Scandinavian and I've never heard of any of them before. They do a good job with the material they're given, but it's hard to connect with them as well.
Perhaps this is one of those movies that you grow to like after repeated viewings. Once was enough for me. Perhaps you also need to read the original Anita Shreve novel before you watch it. If so, I understand the movie is quite the literal adaptation. This may be its biggest flaw: novels can be cinematic in their themes, imagery and their dialogue; they become water-logged when one tries to adapt the same style in telling two contrasting stories. It also helps that when reading a novel with two story lines, it's much easier to go back and re-read parts of it, when the action gets confusing. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 16, 2005 | | Summary | HALF AND HALF | Content
| THE WEIGHT OF WATER is one of those movies using parallel story lines, hopefully in an attempt to give its audience a reason for the comparative storylines. This movie, however, fails to really do that. The murder mystery set in 1870s New Hampshire is riveting, and Sarah Polley is marvelous as young Maren, the woman caught up in a double murder. Ciaran Hinds is also very good as the accused boarder who is sentenced to death for the crimes. Unfortunately, the present day storyline is so muddled and weakly performed that we never fully understand how the two storylines could ever possibly tie together. Sean Penn gives one of his worst performances in this film, having no energy or conviction in his role; Elizabeth Hurley tries to look sexy, and succeeds, but who is this woman? Catherine McCormack doesn't help matters, with her self-absorbent performance, and only Josh Lucas in a throwaway role as Penn's brother redeems himself. If the whole movie had been as engrossing as the period piece, it would have been a real winner. As it is, though, it's merely a showcase for Sarah Polley. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 21, 2004 | | Summary | Absorbing drama | Content
| A complex drama in two movements: this was a worth adaptation of Anita Shreve bestseller artistically directed for Kathryn Bigelow whose style camera work reminds us to the Chabrol of the seventies , (The butcher)and Antonioni (L eclisse) .
The story is told in parallel times , when two modern couples decide to go to New Hampshire and visit the stage where two brutal murderers were commited 125 years ago , in which an innocent man is declared guilty and punished with death .
The slow rhtym is revealed with nuance and psichological mood , the defiant glances , the sensuality and the lack of inspiration of William Burroughs (Sean Penn) . Precisely in contrast with absence of creative fire , his husband seeks the clues far beyond the official story .
She will be rebuilding this macabre and mysterious puzzle , involved in a complex web of silents , incest and madness .
In both narrative lines the tension grows , and these stories admirably never intersect but they are edited perfectly with extraordinary and dramatic links .
All the characters have something to hide , the loneliness and hopeless are just behind the door , the poetry spills through the plot ; and the beating mistery slowly appears in front of the viewer with its merciless crudeness .
Sarah Polley stole the show with her complex acting . She is an overwhelming young actress and is a hopeful promise in this craft , together with Naomi Watts .
Certainly there is an undeniable european influence in its descriptive and paced flow . The corporal and visual languages are fundamental in this superb work .
Watch that film . Bigelow reveals as a great promise director with this work. |
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