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The Weight of Water (2000)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
30 March 2001 (Italy)
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Tagline:
Hell hath no fury...
Plot:
A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873...
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Plot Keywords:
Murder
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Axe Murder
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Island
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Puppy
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New England
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Awards:
1 win
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1 nomination
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NewsDesk:
(4 articles)
Holiday Preview: A Repertory Calendar
(From IFC. 3 November 2009, 1:01 PM, PST)
Hollywood Film Festival Honors Kathryn Bigelow with "Hollywood Director Award"
(From pretty-scary. 30 September 2009, 11:23 AM, PDT)
(From IFC. 3 November 2009, 1:01 PM, PST)
Hollywood Film Festival Honors Kathryn Bigelow with "Hollywood Director Award"
(From pretty-scary. 30 September 2009, 11:23 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
A cruise to nowhere
more (82 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Le poids de l'eau (France)
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MPAA:
Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, and brief language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
Russia:113 min | USA:113 min
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
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:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Based on an actual double-murder on the Isles of Shoals on 6 March 1873.
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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.
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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.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld (2005) (V)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (82 total)
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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.