Seacoast Review of Weight of Water

What about the alternative murder theories?

We’re getting way off the topic of the film here, but let’s deal with the "other" murder theories once and for all. The Smuttynose tragedy became a who-dunnit in the early 20th century. A writer named Edmund Pearson wrote about the murder for one of the popular pulp detective magazines. That article was later anthologized into a book called "Murder at Smuttynose and Other Stories." Since then it has been treated as an "open case" although the actual jury took less than an hour to reach its decision in 1873. Lyman Rutledge, a Shoals historian, picked up on the detective crime theme in his booklet about the murders, and Anita Shreve picked up on Ruttledge.

So back to the movie. What are the best scenes?

The opening scene, where Louis Wagner is carted through the streets of Portsmouth with an angry mob feels authentic and captures the mood of the times. When Maren confronts him in his jail cell, the scene resonates with reality. The reconstruction of the Hontvet house (The real one burned down 125 years ago) is a dead ringer for the one in the famous photos of the house. Director Kathryn Bigelow did an incredible job "growing" the house through time. When Maren and John arrive from Norway it is empty, bleak and foreboding. It becomes more homey, warm and colorful as the years pass and more members of the family arrive in America. Yet the rocky bleakness of Smuttynose Island remains effectively in the foreground – even though the film was shot in Nova Socita and not at the Isles of Shoals. There are no "best" scenes in the contemporary story, except when they walk through an imaginary Portsmouth. That was cool. The characters smoke a lot of cigarettes, smirk, drink a lot of wine, have banal conversations and cast melodramatic glances at one another to imply smoldering inner emotions that never rise to any believable level.

What did you like least?

Personally, I am sick to death of films that juxtapose sex and violence. Kathryn Bigelow is a very talented director, but she seems determined to prove that women can be as violent as men, and that women directors can show violence onscreen just like the big boys. Violence is our national disease and this film does nothing to explain or solve the problem. It offers nothing new and sheds no light on the past. The excuse that -- it’s all just "Art" and a mirror of our society -- is total crap, in my humble view. Directors and producers have a responsibility to stop, not to expand the madness. It's all, very simply, about making money shocking a population that is almost shock-proof and getting them into the theater. A film like "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is 100 times more emotionally powerful becuase the violence is implied, never seen. We are, as a nation, violence junkies, and other nations have the right to resent us for spreading our addition around the world. In "Weight" we never truly sympathize with the victims. When Evan discovers his slain wife at the opening of the film, there is an emotional charge. But the ultimate killing scene is more like "Dawn of the Dead", a cartoon of violence, not an emotional act. In fact, it's worse because the soundtrack here is filled with angelic singing, as if Maren is on some sort of mission from God. I found the scene sickening at first. We're driven to be more concerned with Maren's motivations than with the victims themselves, and so the humanity of the tale is lost. Why a good director would want to be Sam Peckinpaw or Quentin Tarrantino is beyond my understanding.

Any funny historical flaws in the film?

The film thinks Smuttynose Island is in New Hampshire, when it is in Maine. But that fact even confused the lawyers in 1873 until someone got out a map and noticed that the islands at the Shoals are divided between New Hampshire and Maine. There is a scene where a teakettle with no whistle whistles. There’s no snow in March in the film. The 20^th century characters swim in the open Atlantic Ocean, which can be pretty cold here even in summer. This ain’t the Bahamas. The other Isles of Shoals and the other houses on 19th century Smuttynose seem to be missing. The director does not want to confuse us with details, like the fact that a hotel was being built on Start Island at the same time as murder, or that Appledore is just across the cove from Smuttynose. But generally the prop and continuity people did a bang-up job. We spend a lot of time on the Shoals, and this film captures the feeling of the island.

Are you done with this movie?

Not by a long shot. I’ll get the DVD the minute it comes out to study the Smuttynose scenes even closer. I’d like to interview the people who built the sets and designed the costumes. If the reconstructed Hontvet house is still standing in Nova Scotia, I’d like very much to spend an hour inside it. That, for me, would be the greatest part of this whole crazy ride. The story is really all about Anita Shreve's fascination with the story of Maren, Karen and Anethe. It is a truly fascinating story and it compels many of us year after year. Thousands of visitors to the Shoals have felt it too. Now a million more people will want to know the real story too.

This interview copyright © 2003 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved. Revised in 2008.