The Weight of Water (2000)

Director:

Kathryn Bigelow

Writers (WGA):

Anita Shreve (novel)
Alice Arlen (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 March 2001 (Italy)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Hell hath no fury...

Plot:

A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Axe Murder | Island | Puppy | New England

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Ciarán Hinds	...	Louis Wagner (as Ciaran Hinds)
Richard Donat	...	Mr. Plaisted
Sarah Polley	...	Maren Hontvedt
Ulrich Thomsen	...	John Hontvedt
Anders W. Berthelsen	...	Evan Christenson
Joseph Rutten	...	Judge
John Walf	...	Defense Attorney
Katrin Cartlidge	...	Karen Christenson
Vinessa Shaw	...	Anethe Christenson
Adam Curry	...	Emil Ingerbretson
Catherine McCormack	...	Jean Janes
Sean Penn	...	Thomas Janes
Josh Lucas	...	Rich Janes
Elizabeth Hurley	...	Adaline Gunne
John Maclaren	...	Dr. Parsons

Also Known As:

Le poids de l'eau (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, and brief language.

Runtime:

Russia:113 min | USA:113 min

Country:

USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | UK:15 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Fox Baja Studios, Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico

Company:

Studio Canal

Trivia:

Based on an actual double-murder on the Isles of Shoals on 6 March 1873.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the documents are blown over the ship, they are blown to one side, but in the next shot you can see a flag blowing to the opposite side.

Quotes:

Maren Hontvedt: I have discovered in my life that it is not always the nature of god nor why he may bring in one night pleasure & death & rage & tenderness all intermingled so that one can barely distinguish one from the other... and it is all that one can do to hang onto sanity.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld (2005) (V)

A cruise to nowhere

The problem with "The Weight of the Water", the film, is the way the novel by Anita Shreve, was adapted for the screen. This is the basic flaw that even a good director like Kathryn Bigelow couldn't overcome when she took command of the production. The novel, as it is, presents grave problems for a screen treatment, something that the adapters, Alicia Arlen and Christopher Kyle, were not successful with their screen play.

The picture is basically a film within a film. Both subjects, the present time and the story that is revealed as Jane gets involved, parallel each other, but one story has nothing to do with the other. Also, the way this film was marketed was wrong. This is not a thriller at all. What the book and the film are about is human situations that are put to a test.

In the story that happened many years ago in a settlement in coastal New England, there was a notorious murder at the center of the narrative. It has to do with a wrongly accused man, Louis Wagner, a man that is basically crippled with arthritis that is accused by Maren Hontvelt, his landlady, as the one that killed two women, Karen and Anethe. In flashbacks we get to know the truth of how an innocent man is hung for a crime he didn't commit.

The second story shows how Jane who is traveling with her husband Thomas, in his brother's yacht. She is a photographer on assignment about the place where the women were murdered, years ago, is lured to the subject matter she is photographing, and makes the discovery of the truth. Her own relationship with her husband Thomas is a troubled one. They are doomed as a couple, one can only see the way he leers after his brother's girlfriend as she parades almost naked in the pleasure boat they are spending time. In the novel the tension comes across much deeply than what one sees in the movie.

The amusing thing about the film is that the secondary story is more interesting than the present one. Thus, the luminous Sarah Polley, who plays Maren in the secondary tale, makes a deep impression, as does the accused man, Louis Wagner, who is portrayed by Ciaran Hands. Sean Penn, comes across as somehow stiff as Thomas. The wonderful Katrin Cartlidge is totally wasted.

The film has elicited bad comments in this forum, but it's not the bad movie some people are trying to say it is. Better yet, read Ms. Shreve's novel as it is more satisfying than what came out in this movie version.