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The web site is long gone. The movie is available on DVD for as little as a dollar on eBay. But in Seacoast, New Hampshire, the Weight of Water movie still looms large. We've kept this review online in our archives for those who missed the web site.

VISIT our SMUTTYNOSE MURDER section

Let’s be clear. This is not a review of the film “Weight of Water” made from the Anita Shreve bestseller. The film is nowhere to be seen in these parts, a fact that is driving Isles of Shoals fans nuts. The story is based, as everyone around here knows, on the double homicide on SmuttynoseIslandin 1873 . It was shot four years ago, in Canada, and not at the nearby Isles of Shoals. It premiered at the Toronto film festival two years ago, got a few bad reviews, and sank like an anchor. A friend of mine rented it on video in Greece last year, but the movie only attained release in “select cities” in the USA earlier this month.

Limited release sounds cool, like a “limited edition”. But essentially this film, for good or ill, is being dumped. I bet it will do well on video – thanks to the star presence of Sean Penn and a little trick Elizabeth Hurley performs on her naked body with an ice cube. But this is local history and I wanted to see the darned thing on the silver screen. Looks like that will never happen.

Too bad. I was really looking forward to this – and looking, and looking. I’m far from the only Smuttynose Murder fanatic in these parts. But I do have the giant web site devoted to telling the true story behind the fictionalized version. (www.weight-of-water.com). I spend one week each summer on Smuttynose Island where there are only two houses and no electricity, and it’s hard not to think about the murders. In fact, one of the first times I met my wife Maryellen, she was holding the authentic ax used in the Smuttynose homicide. Now tell me that’s not a weird connection.

THE WEB SITE MAKERS

The “Weight of Water” web site, taken on its own, is attractive and stylish. The film is being promoted as an “erotic thriller”, a phrase that doesn’t jive, for me, with the fact that it is largely about an ax murder. But the Hollywood style graphics show none of that. The whole thing is done up in burning amber tones with brown and black and white highlights. We see Ms. Hurley in a bikini and Mr. Penn looking hunky. There are tiny images of a yacht, a half naked woman and a couple making out. No Smuttynose.

This is the second web site for the film. The first was up for two years while the film was in limbo, played spooky music and showed a ghostly image floating in water. When you clicked on it – the Hollywood site took you to my web page. I’m not kidding. That’s all there was. And I didn’t get paid a penny. Back then the promoters were trying the history angle. Based on the critical reviews out this week , they should have stayed with history. The film is consistently getting two and half stars out of five.

I assume the site was created by the distributor Lion Gate Films. No on seems to be available there for comment. Just two weeks into its limited release, “Weight of Water” isn’t even listed among the company’s most recent films. Even anchors don’t sink that fast. The movie is being propelled into the sediment at the floor of the ocean with a bullet.

Proactive viewers who want to know where “Weight of Water” is showing may fill out a detailed form and email a request. I did that two weeks ago and never got a reply. It’s as if the distributor just wants the whole thing to go away.

Readers who ENTER the site get an initial treat. The Flash animation is extremely catchy. Sean Penn winks. A woman’s eyes open in horror. A wave tosses over the yacht. Clicking Sean produces profiles of the actors, including Ciaran Hinds, who plays murderer Louis Wagner, the man who was hanged for the actual crimes. Sarah Poley plays Maren Hontvet, the woman who survived the attack, and her portrayal alone has gotten critical raves.

The film trailer, like the web site, promises great things to come. Here we see in a nutshell how novelist Anita Shreve wove together the contemporary story of fictional people visiting the island with the historical murder tale. It’s a very good trailer. I watched it over and over on a full screen with rich, booming stereo sound. Looked like a good flick to me.

The other buttons are a disappointment. We get minimal bios on director Kathryn Bigelow, author Anita Shreve, the costume designer, soundtrack composer and other supporting people. There’s a one-page story summary that’s hardly worth the click. And there’s a contest too, sponsored by Time Warner. I entered to win a “Weight of Water” movie poster and a copy of the book. At the bottom of the page is a button for more information. I clicked and ended up on my web site.

THE UP SHOT

I read a couple dozen reviews of the film, and they make one point clear. The original murder story, critics say, is compelling. It is clearly the best half of the divided tale. What doesn’t work, critics unanimously agree, is the way the film careens back and forth between the 19th and 21st centuries. The moody metaphors of the novel become a murky morass on film.

But I say – who cares? Whether the film succeeds artistically or cinematically isn’t the point for the few of us who know the story and the island by heart.

I want to see Maren and Louis come alive. I want to hear them speak in thick Norweigian accents, sitting around in their claustrophobic wooden duplex on the barren rocky shoals. From the glimpses visible in the trailer, the reconstructed Smuttynose Island looks pretty good. A friend of mine walked director Kathryn Bigelow around the actual island while the filmmaker was scouting locations. The Nova Scotia knock-off looks pretty convincing. In the film, the Hontvet house still stands, although the original burned a few years after the murder. That’s poetic license.

I want to see how Ulrich Thompson plays John Hontvet. After the murders, history tells us, his wife Maren returned to orway while he stayed in Portsmouth. Evan, played by Anders W. Berthelsen Returned to Norway too after the murder of his wife. And then there are the murder victims, Karen and Anethe, played by Katrin Cartlidge and Vinessa Shaw. It is their blood that the facts, the legends, the fiction and film all revolve around. Murdered then exploited, when all this hubbub is over, they still lie buried in South Cemetery. Their story, bent by art and trampled by critics, is as compelling and as sad as ever