THE WEIGHT OF WATER
US, 2000, 113 minutes, Colour.
Sean Penn, Catherine Mc Cormack, Josh Lucas, Elizabeth Hurley, Sarah Polley, Ciaran Hinds, Ulrich Thomsen, Anders W. Birthelsen, Katrin Cartlidge, Vinessa Shaw.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
The Weight of Water is based on a novel about axe murders in New Hampshire in 1873. This provides a basis for a contemporary story where a photojournalist is investigating the truth of the court’s verdict.
The film has two stories running intercut throughout the whole film, suggesting that there should be parallels between the two stories – but this is not always spelt out so clearly for the audience. It makes demands on the audience to understand the characters, the situations, discern the parallels.
The film of the 1873 story is far more interesting than that of the present (something characteristic, perhaps, of films with two stories, one in the past, one in the present – The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Possession, even the comic Julie and Julia).
In the 19th century story, Sarah Polley is a standout as the young bride, moving from Norway to America, with her husband Anders W. Birthelsen (Italian For Beginners, Just Another Love Story) and the man in charge of the settlement, Ulrich Thomsen (Amen, Brothers). Ciaran Hinds portrays a German migrant who boards with the couple. He is ultimately accused of two murders – with the Sarah Polley character escaping and giving testimony against him. The victims are the woman’s sister, played by Catrin Cartlidge, and her sister-in-law, Vinessa Shaw.
In the present, a bit like Polanski’s Knife in the Water, four characters are on a boat off the New Hampshire coast. Catherine Mc Cormack plays the investigator. She is married to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, played by Sean Penn. His brother, Josh Lucas, owns the boat and has his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, along for the voyage. The girlfriend makes a play for the poet – raising suspicions and some jealousies in the rather repressed journalist.
The film re-enacts the court’s verdict about the murders – but later the speculation by the photojournalist in which the young woman is responsible. In a storm at the end of the film, the journalist may or may not have pushed her rival overboard – but the result is the death of her husband in trying to rescue her.
The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Blue Steel, Strange Days, K9 the Widow Maker and the Iraq film, The Hurt Locker).
1.The interest in the historical story? The contemporary story? Their counterpointing each other?
2.The credits, the water, the images? The water at the end, for Maren, for Jean?
3.The historic story based on a true story, the newspaper headings, the trial and the documentation? The contemporary reassessment of the verdict? The visuals of the murder by Louis, by Maren? The possibilities?
4.The contemporary story, the boat, the four people, the tensions, sexual tensions, suspicions, danger, the storm and the parallels between the two stories at the end?
5.The re-creation of New Hampshire, the 1870s, the village, the isolated homes, the coast, the island? The score?
6.The contemporary story, the boat, the sea, the town, the archives?
7.The introduction to the 1870s, the people pursuing Louis, the arrest, his protesting his innocence, the confrontation in the cell, Maren and her fainting? Her testimony in the court? The police, the accusation? Louis in prison, the build-up to the trial, Maren as witness, the cross-examination? His execution?
8.The portrait of Maren, young, her husband, loving him or not, serving him in hard work, childless? Going to America from Norway, her hopes? Her foreseeing a life of drudgery? The importance of the voice-over, her life and work, the documents she wrote? The routine life, the communications and John as in charge of the migrants? Her sister’s arrival, wanting news of her brother, her disappointment? Managing with the sister in the house? Louis, the migrant, wanting board and lodging, the massage, the approach to her, her reaction? Wanting letters from her brother, their not arriving? Her sister, hard? The news of her brother’s arrival, his fiancée with him, her upset? Her harsh reaction? Setting up her sister-in-law for the attack by Louis?
9.The gallery of supporting characters, insight into characters and situations, isolation, suspicion? John and his work in the town? Evan and his love for his wife, hard work, hopes for a pregnancy, her explanation? Karen and her being hard, her opinion of her brother and sister? Anethe and her love for her husband, pregnancy?
10.Anethe, nervous, in the bed with Maren, Maren’s reaction, affection, the sexual overtones? Karen accusing her of incest in the past, her brother? The flashbacks and the reality? Maren’s violent reaction, Anethe escaping, her battering Karen, the axe with Anethe? The aftermath, the blood, her lies? The document that she went to the lawyer two years later? Telling the truth? The cover-up in order to preserve justice and the verdict of the court?
11.The visuals of Louis as the alternate killer?
12.The boat, the four on holidays, Jean’s voice-over? As characters, relationships, the past, the present?
13.Jean, photography, her marriage to Thomas, his poetry? Her interest in the case, the investigation, the documents – and their blowing away and being rescued? Going to the archives (and her refusal of the sexual encounter with Thomas)? The puzzle about the case, waking Thomas, her love for her husband, her suspicions of Adaline? Antipathy? Reaction to Rich? The past, Thomas and the scar and the accident?
14.Adaline, the relationship with Rich, seductive, sunbaking, topless, her character, her knowledge of Thomas, flirting with him?
15.Rich, pleasant, the brother, his support of his brother?
16.Thomas, the Pulitzer Prize, his poetry, the various quotes, the women memorising them? Moody, relationship with Jean, his looking at Adaline, the past and Adaline’s being a groupie, the revelation of his killing the girl in the accident, the subject of his poetry? His love for Jean?
17.The parallels between the two stories, the storm, Adaline going overboard, whether Jean pushed her or not? Thomas diving in, the rescue, his drowning? The attempts to save him?
18.Jean’s dream, in the water, seeing Maren? The drowning?
19.The value of each story, their interconnections?
