The Weight of Water
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Movie Reviews of The Weight of Water
Movie Review: Half of a Gem Found in Heavy Water
Summary: 4 Stars
Katherine Bigelow's "The Weight of Water," is a compelling story unraveled through seemingly parallel tales, one in the present, the other set in 1873 on an off-shore New England Island. The 1873 tale is intriguing and has all the elements of a fine murder-mystery. The thing that stops this film from raising above the merely good and talented fray is that the two tales are unbalanced. Though the modern day tale of Sean Pean as a writer, his wife as a photojournalist, Josh Lucas as Penn's brother, and a deliciously played coy Elizabeth Hurley as Lucas' girlfriend and a literary groupie to Penn makes for complicated interactions played interestingly by a fine cast, it simply does not live up to the history behind the mystery.The two tales are attempted to be interwoven but aren't connected skillfully like similar cinematic anachronistic parallel tales like "The Hours." Don't miss this as a rental; you will be captivated, intrigued, frightened, but its not one to own unless you are a big fan of Penn or Hurley. The water indeed gets weighty but it's only half deep.
--MMW
Movie Review: The Weight of Water
Summary: 4 Stars
This film follows two story lines, a group of modern people investigating an 1873 double murder, and the people who lived through the murders. The story intertwines in a way that helps the viewer understand what motivates both the researchers and the victims. The generally accepted theory was that a boarder made unwanted advances on women and then killed them. But something doesn't add up. Could the guilty man really be innocent? That is the theory Jean Janes (Catherine McCormack) comes up with after studying the case.
The theory proves correct, and the accuser turned out to be the murderer. In the end the realization ultimately claims the life of her husband played by Sean Penn. Penn's performace is a bit subpar from his other roles where he envelopes his character. In Thomas Janes, Penn never really establishes himself as the lead actor.
But the movie is still worth a look. It has suspense, romance, intrigue, and utlimately is quite entertaining.
Movie Review: Half a great film...
Summary: 4 Stars
The historical half of this film is riveting, with a fantastic performance by Sarah Polley. For her alone this film is worth watching, which is why i give it four stars despite the modern day story which is terrible and completly uninteresting. I would even reccomend just fastfowarding past those parts. They should have dropped the modern day plot and made a movie about the murders, then it would have gotten five stars from me. As it was, it still had me thinking about it days later.Movie Review: Be patient...
Summary: 4 Stars
I have never read the book.. So this is just based on what i saw of the film...It was a great movie.. A bit sluggish but worth it towards the last half hour.. Very well acted and played out. Beautifully filmed. Definetly check this out.. If you have no patience and hate waiting for something to happen, then this MIGHT not be for you.. But if you want to see a good movie don't pass this one by..
Movie Review: ...and Liz Hurley Sucking Provocatively on Everything.
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie should have been titled "The Weight of Water... and Liz Hurley Sucking Provocatively on Everything."
As an Anita Shreve fan (this film was based on her book, which was a fabulous read BTW), I approached it with one of those "the movies are never as good as the book" attitudes.
I was partially wrong. In some ways, it eclipsed the book and in others, it fell short. The eclipsing parts make up for the shortcomings and so it is a film I'd recommend to a select type of audience, particularly, those who appreciate very artistic types of films.
Anyway there were only a couple of things I found disagreeable. The original story (the "present tense" part of the story) had Thomas and Jean's 5 y/o daughter on the boat, which I thought was a key element in the tensions that played out, but the screen play left the daughter at home w/relatives.
Secondly, while Elizabeth Hurley's character, Adelaide, is supposed to be a sexy vixen hung up on Sean Penn's character of Thomas and is a threatening presence to Jean, her part was a little "over played."
Could you see yourself on a boat w/your husband, brother in law and his gorgeous GF who's publicly announced her awe for your husband's work (as a poet), and every time you turn around, she's sucking provocatively on a piece of ice in the hot sun in a bikini, or sucking provocatively on alaskan king crab legs at dinner, or sucking provocatively on the pickup sticks during a game, or sucking provocatively on the swizzle stick from her drink - each time always making direct eye contact w/your husband.
Do you get my point then, that in this film, Liz Hurley's manner of getting her character across is by sucking on everything? And it's annoying?
However... the film is brilliant in other ways. It splits between the present and the events surrounding an 1800s murder involving Norwegian emmigrants living on an island near New Hampshire. Jean is on assignment w/her magazine to shoot some photos to accompany an article to be written about the murders. They try to mix business w/pleasure by going on a "couples cruise" for several days on the bro in law's boat.
Sexual tensions, implied infidelity, all this brooding stuff going on on the boat with intermittent scenes going back to the events surrounding the murders in the 1800s, to which there are many parallels (unhappy marriages, isolation, infidelity, etc.).
That's were the film's brilliance shows and the actors really shine. Ciaran Hinds is great as the wrongly accused and Sarah Polley is stunning in her role as Maren Hondvedt, the sole survivor of the murders (and I won't give away the plot as to what else she ends up being...).
It's a good film. If you're a guy, Liz Hurley sucking provocatively on small props should be a bonus and if you never read the book, you'd never care that the daughter isn't on the boat.
I'd recommend to friends who like artistic films.