So murkily executed that the ending is all but indecipherable through the pea-soup.
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10/26/02
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The Weight of Water (2002)
32
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:62
Fresh:20
Rotten:42
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: The story is too muddled to build any interest.
Theatrical Release:Nov 1, 2002 Limited
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... [More]
Starring: Elizabeth Hurley, Catherine McCormack, Sean Penn, Sarah Polley
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
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Reviews for The Weight of Water
Bigelow perfectly establishes a feel of place and time for both stories, and they're so radically different that you may find yourself shocked when 100 years flash by in a single cut.
11/07/02
You can feel the restlessness in the repressed emotions and unspoken passions of the characters, but exactly what they yearn for is not always clear.
11/14/02
Bigelow is so intent upon making a non-exploitative movie that she de-sensationalizes the film to the point where it loses all energy.
10/29/02
Top CriticBigelow may produce broad, middling big-budget fare when (working for) a studio...But left to her own devices, she's capable of creating fine layers of intimacy and intensity.
11/01/02
A very literary drama that uses two intertwined stories to explore jealousy as a dangerous little mutant that sometimes is life-threatening.
10/31/02
Works better in its various parts than as a whole.
12/06/02
Slicked-up jazzy lit-porn: all nice-looking people in various stages of excitement in the room coming and going and talking of Michelangelo.
10/10/02
From the diary of Kathryn Bigelow - "Maybe this whole project was some subconscious effort to take shots at the jackasses in my life."
10/31/02
Makes its belated arrival sporting the bloated, pruny appearance of something that's been floating aimlessly for longer than anybody cares to remember.
06/13/02
No matter how deep her hurt, Jean and her insecurities make for an impoverished counterpoint to the tragedy of a woman imprisoned by history as well as by madness.
10/31/02
Top CriticIt's a 100-year old mystery that is constantly being interrupted by Elizabeth Hurley in a bathing suit.
11/27/02
The jarring jumps between disconnected stories and watered-down sensationalism make for a soggy experience.
12/19/02
Top CriticThe actors are splendid, especially Sarah Polley and Sean Penn, but we never feel confident that these two plots fit together, belong together, or work together.
11/01/02
Top Critic[Bigelow] provides the standard, repressive Victorian melodrama in the old story, while the newer one is merely afloat until a storm rolls in as climax.
11/01/02
Flat and melancholy, a muted tale of throttled feelings that never builds emotional momentum.
11/02/02
It's got a good director. Good cast. Good source material. Yet it still sinks like a stone.
11/02/02
Top CriticIn 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.'
10/28/02
There are a few wrong notes, and the ending is too enigmatic for its own good, but for a studio production the film is uncommonly intelligent and uncompromising.
12/13/02
Top CriticIt overcomes its initial wobbliness and turns into an engaging and literate psychodrama.
06/16/02
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