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The Weight of Water

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United States, Canada, France · 2000
Rated R · 1h 53m
Director Kathryn Bigelow
Starring Sean Penn, Catherine McCormack, Elizabeth Hurley, Sarah Polley
Genre Mystery, Drama, Thriller

A newspaper photographer, Jean, researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873 as an editorial tie-in with a brutal modern double murder. She discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an account of the murders by an eyewitness.

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What are critics saying?

50

San Francisco Chronicle by

Involves two mysteries -- one it gives away and the other featuring such badly drawn characters that its outcome hardly matters. But the picture looks great.

30

Dallas Observer by Bill Gallo

Means to be heavy in terms of psychology, provocation and the examination of emotion, but it sinks like a stone the minute it hits the surface.

50

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Contains multiple ax murders, lesbianism, incest, a hanging, and a storm at sea -- yet, despite all of this seemingly enticing material, it's a bore.

63

Boston Globe by Janice Page

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.

40

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Penn, in particular, is so subdued he's hardly there, while Hurley's seductive, hyper-articulate Adaline is actually ludicrous, sucking suggestively on ice cubes and reciting poetry like a phone-sex operator pretending to be a book-reading babe.

50

Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan

The two stories never come close to meshing the way the filmmaker intended. The result is a well-acted movie that simply doesn't gel.

67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

The insistent crosscutting suggests there is something powerful between the two stories, but apart from vague connections of jealousy, emotional tension and conversations that constantly dance around the real issues, they don't resonate across the years.

60

Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

It's 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.

50

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

Shows glimmers of great drama, but jettisons too much essential cargo (character development, relationships, plot, common sense) in an effort to be lean and clean.

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