"The Weight of Water" (2000) - Movie Review

A movie clearly aimed at the audience who are ready to sit and go that mile for meaning provides the luxury of obscurity. This obscurity while can make things treasury and fulfilling at times for interpretation might very well be the downfall of a movie. Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Weight of Water” based of the novel by the same name by Anita Shreve plays dangerous acrobats over the ropes of it and finally falls off. The acrobat play of screenplay does provide some clarity of emotions but does not rise up the level of the intensity it is supposed to.

The film shifts in the present and the past of events of totally different kind but same emotions. In 1873 two women in the isles of shoals which are off the coasts of New Hampshire were axed. A man is identified as the murderer by the third women, who survived the killings, Maren (Sarah Polley). As the film says, it is been long debated on the event as such on who did the murder even though the man Louis Wagner (Ciarán Hinds) was convicted and hanged to death. This curiosity also catches up the journalistic photographer Jean (Catherine McCormack) who along with her Pulitzer Prize winning husband Thomas (Sean Penn) comes to dig the secret, in the present time. They join Thomas’ brother Rich (Josh Lucas) and his girl friend Adaline(Elizabeth Hurley). In their boat they anchor near the islands. Adaline knows every poem Thomas wrote and recites him back. Thomas is strangely impressed by this discusses more about those in detail with her. Adaline apart from this is extremely sensuous sending all kinds of mixed signals any one can easily misinterpret or rightly interpret. Mean while the film goes back and forth in between the story happening in the present time and that around the murders. In the story of the 1873 killings, it goes back and comes to the point of trial conveniently without any loss of details and continuity.

Having to deal with the sexual identity along in being unidentified for love in times of 1870s is beyond words of explanation. Maren (Sarah Polley) deals with that. More than the sexual identity is her loneliness and the confused state of her situation. She is married to a man uninterested and performs sex in a mechanical nature. But the same is the case with Maren too. She is not in love with her husband and still need to deal with him. He works and serves him day in and day out making herself busy. In this fragile state of mind comes Louis Wagner staying with them with rheumatism. He tries to take advantage of the state Maren is in. Maren confused yet realizing herself denies him. Sarah Polley gives a performance so intact and pale. Her reaction less face adds to the misery as well as the numb ness of her inner sufferings of confusions. It is slowly coming to light of the frustrations Maren goes through. But still her naïve and inanimate face does not make us believe of these brutal murders by those soft hands. There is no suspense of whodunit but it is the question of “what” and “how”.

There is a constant tension and uneasiness in between Jean and Thomas. Adding to it is that Thomas is inaccessible and so is Jean. This gap of accessibility and a voluptuous fan on board in their boat is the recipe of the suspicion. The normal glances any man would look over a beautiful woman are taken meanings. Those casual stares are given serious weight. The imaginary artist in the minds of Jean draws the picture of jealousy and as she discovers the characteristics of Maren, instead of learning from it, she goes towards the same path of hers.

While the above scenarios seem to be a nice plot of drama and unknown signals of curiosity, the film does not amplify those properly. May be it is due to the two parallel stories with the story based on Maren taking too much of energy out of the material. The development of the characters in the present time is broken and does not have the human it needs. The character of Rich is completely negated. There seems to be nothing of deep conversation over the relationship between Jean and Thomas which is so obvious is shredded and cold strained. And also apart from the jealous eyes of Jean, there is no other indication of her frustrations or loneliness. There are scenes of uneasiness but it is just enough for the strain of their relationship and not the reasons of infidelity. And even if there is one, her character does not seem to get the in depth scope as that of Maren to make her believable. Also there are loose ends with respect to the character of Adaline who may or may not be involved with Thomas. The plot and performance of Sarah Polley has enough mass to lift this film to surface up but not enough to sail it through to the shores.