The Weight of Water Reviews
May 30, 2011
The boating scenes have a languid yet charged sexuality, and the performances remain vibrant and rock-solid to the end.
December 20, 2006
Artistically speaking, Bigelow's drama may be her most ambitous and personal film to date, a multi-layered (period and contemporary) psychological thriller that borrows from Bergman's masterpiece Persona; commercially, however, it's problematic.
Original Score: B-
June 19, 2003
But Bigelow creates such an intoxicating swell it is hard to not get drawn in to the whole convoluted mess these era-spanning characters find themselves in.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
December 19, 2002
The jarring jumps between disconnected stories and watered-down sensationalism make for a soggy experience.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
December 16, 2002
Original Score: 2/4
December 13, 2002
The Weight of Water uses water as a metaphor for subconscious desire, but this leaky script barely stays afloat.
Original Score: 2/4
December 13, 2002
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.
Original Score: A-
November 15, 2002
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.
Original Score: 2/4
November 8, 2002
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
November 8, 2002
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.
November 6, 2002
In old-fashioned screenwriting parlance, Ms. Shreve's novel proved too difficult a text to 'lick,' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast.
November 6, 2002
Maneuvers skillfully through the plot's hot brine -- until it's undone by the sogginess of its contemporary characters, and actors.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
November 5, 2002
Kathryn Bigelow, it's like she's directing two films. They have very distinct styles, and everybody gets their say and gets their moment.
November 2, 2002
It's got a good director. Good cast. Good source material. Yet it still sinks like a stone.
Original Score: C-
November 1, 2002
Involves two mysteries -- one it gives away and the other featuring such badly drawn characters that its outcome hardly matters.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
November 1, 2002
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.
Original Score: 2/4
November 1, 2002
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
November 1, 2002
The 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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
October 31, 2002
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.
Original Score: 2.5/4
October 31, 2002
When the movie finally collapses on itself late in the game, it leaves you in the frustrating position of having to pick up its scattered pieces and assemble them as best you can.
Original Score: 2.5/5