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CONSENSUS
The story is too muddled to build any interest.
CAST & CREW
Elizabeth Hurley, Catherine McCormack, Sean Penn
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
more...
SYNOPSIS
Two stories unravel simultaneously in this dark and suspenseful film. The first story, set in the present day, concerns a photographer, Jean (Catherine McCormack). She is working on an article for a magazine about a pair of bloody murders that happened 200 years before on the Isle of Shoals, just off the coast of New Hampshire. more...
MPAA RATING
R, violence, sexuality/nudity, and brief language
RUNTIME
1 hour, 53 minutes
RELEASE DATES
Theatrical: Nov 1, 2002
Video: Mar 4, 2003
RELEASE COMPANY
Lions Gate Films
GENRE
Dramas, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Mystery/Suspense, Sex, Photographers
OFFICIAL SITE
• The Official The Weight of Water Site
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POSTERS
TRAILER & MEDIA
PHOTOS
TIDBITS
LINKS
SUBMIT/EDIT ARTICLE
SUBMIT USER REVIEW
FORUM
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 "Whether our action-and-popcorn obsessed culture will embrace this engaging and literate psychodrama isn't much of a mystery, unfortunately."
-- Staci Layne Wilson, FANTASTICA DAILY
 "None of the characters or plot-lines are fleshed-out enough to build any interest."
-- Ross Williams, FILM THREAT
"The superior plotline isn't quite enough to drag along the dead (water) weight of the other."
-- Phil Villarreal, ARIZONA DAILY STAR
"[Two] fairly dull -- contrasting and interlocking stories about miserable Scandinavian settlers in 18th-century Canada, and yuppie sailboaters in the here and now."
-- Gary Thompson, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
"Heavy-handed exercise in time-vaulting literary pretension."
-- Ron Stringer, L.A. WEEKLY
"It doesn't surprise me that this film sat for two years in storage before released, as the final version appeared
clunky."
-- Dennis Schwartz, OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEWS
"Her film is like a beautiful food entrée that isn't heated properly, so that it ends up a bit cold and relatively flavorless."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS
"Intriguing and beautiful film, but those of you who read the book are likely to be disappointed."
-- Jon Popick, PLANET SICK-BOY
"Despite an impressive roster of stars and direction from Kathryn Bigelow, The Weight of Water is oppressively heavy."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM
"The modern-day characters are nowhere near as vivid as the 19th-century ones."
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"The problem is that for the most part, the film is deadly dull."
-- Eric Lurio, GREENWICH VILLAGE GAZETTE
"A literate presentation that wonderfully weaves a murderous event in 1873 with murderous rage in 2002."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE
"Weaves a spell over you, with its disturbingly close-up look at damaged psyches and its subtle undercurrents of danger. But its awkward structure keeps breaking the spell."
-- Chris Hewitt, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
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"Elegantly crafted but emotionally cold, a puzzle whose intricate construction one can admire but is difficult to connect with on any deeper level."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
"Portentous and pretentious, The Weight of Water is appropriately titled, given the heavy-handedness of it drama."
-- Shlomo Schwartzberg, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
"Two badly interlocked stories drowned by all too clever complexity."
-- Chuck Schwartz, CRANKY CRITIC®
"El peso de un líquido incoloro, el peso del líquido vital, del amor como elemento de vida, y de muerte..."
-- Alex Ramirez, CINENGANOS
"Bigelow offers some flashy twists and turns that occasionally fortify this turgid fable. But for the most part, The Weight of Water comes off as a two-way time-switching myopic mystery that stalls in its lackluster gear of emotional blandness."
-- Frank Ochieng, THEWORLDJOURNAL.COM
"A well-acted movie that simply doesn't gel."
-- Marc Mohan, OREGONIAN
"Shreve's graceful dual narrative gets clunky on the screen, and we keep getting torn away from the compelling historical tale to a less-compelling soap opera."
-- Moira MacDonald, SEATTLE TIMES
"If the film fails to fulfill its own ambitious goals, it nonetheless sustains interest during the long build-up of expository material."
-- Arthur Lazere, CULTUREVULTURE.NET
"Sarah Polley deserves some kind of recognition for her role in this film."
-- JoBlo, JOBLO'S MOVIE EMPORIUM
"It overcomes its initial wobbliness and turns into an engaging and literate psychodrama."
-- Jeremy Heilman, MOVIEMARTYR.COM
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ROTTEN 35%
Avg. Rating: 5.3/10 |
"An intelligently made (and beautifully edited) picture that at the very least has a spark of life to it -- more than you can say for plenty of movies that flow through the Hollywood pipeline without a hitch."
-- Stephanie Zacharek, SALON.COM
"The action switches between past and present, but the material link is too tenuous to anchor the emotional connections that purport to span a 125-year divide."
-- Megan Turner, NEW YORK POST
"Kathryn Bigelow's attractive film version of Anita Shreve's novel is a gripping plunge but a remote one, suffering from the weight of one too many inexpressible thoughts."
-- Jan Stuart, NEWSDAY
"Maneuvers skillfully through the plot's hot brine -- until it's undone by the sogginess of its contemporary characters, and actors."
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"In old-fashioned screenwriting parlance, Ms. Shreve's novel proved too difficult a text to 'lick,' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast."
-- Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER
"Kathryn Bigelow, it's like she's directing two films. They have very distinct styles, and everybody gets their say and gets their moment."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"The Weight of Water uses water as a metaphor for subconscious desire, but this leaky script barely stays afloat."
-- Steven Rea, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Though it never rises to its full potential as a film, still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed."
-- Janice Page, BOSTON GLOBE
"Involves two mysteries -- one it gives away and the other featuring such badly drawn characters that its outcome hardly matters."
-- Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"A boring, pretentious muddle that uses a sensational, real-life 19th-Century crime as a metaphor for -- well, I'm not exactly sure what -- and has all the dramatic weight of a raindrop."
-- Terry Lawson, DETROIT FREE PRESS
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"In the end, The Weight of Water comes to resemble the kind of soft-core twaddle you'd expect to see on Showtime's 'Red Shoe Diaries.'"
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE
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* Who are the Approved Tomatometer Critics?
* Mouse over a tomato icon for a publication's original rating. Original rating not available for every publication.
* In fairness to critics whose last name begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet, certain pages are sorted in reverse order, z-a.
* Certain "The Weight of Water" article data provided by the Movie Review Query Engine.
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