The Weight of Water

Kathryn Bigelow, who acquired a certain hip-chic for her films Near Dark and Point Break, directs this historical drama/visual study of Elizabeth Hurley’s breasts. Opening in the late-19th century, Weight of Water tells of a multiple murder in a New England fishing village. Sarah Polley, playing either one of the victims or the killer, has a high school drama club charm as Maren Hontvedt, a Norwegian émigré with a typically cinematic secret in her past. Meanwhile, in the year 2000, four friends go on a voyage of discovery ... and self-discovery! They’re searching out the truth of the old murder, each in his or her own way. Jean Janes (Catherine McCormack) looks at the historical record, her husband Thomas (Sean Penn) broods meaningfully over his literary successes, his brother Rich (Josh Lucas) pilots them towards the site of the murder, and Rich’s girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley) wears skimpy outfits in order to tempt history itself into revealing its mysteries. In the manner of all of Bigelow’s films, it’s all a bit silly and very stylish and reasonably entertaining.