Does the movie work?

I have to agree with the critics generally and say "no". Other than the superb reconstruction of the events leading up to the Smuttynose crime, the film never comes together. Half of the film takes place in modern times and those characters, including Sean Penn, are wooden and unbelievable. The sexy scenes were so silly that audience members actually giggled. When Penn tries to seduce his wife among the shelves of the Portsmouth Courthouse archives, the giggling turned to guffaws. The ending of the film, where all the pieces from the two eras should come together, is loud and chaotic, but unsatisfying. After setting up two elaborately plotted stories, it was as if an angry hand simply knocked the whole complex construction down. The final storm is supposed to be symbolic and cathartic. It was neither.

So it’s not worth seeing?

I didn’t say that. In fact, most of the people I spoke to said they were glad they attended the film. Sometimes an imperfect work of art can be perfectly fascinating. The original premise of the novel, the cinematography, the costumes, the detailed reconstruction of Smuttynose island and the Hontvet "murder" house, some of the author’s literary symbolism, the acting of the Norwegian cast (especially Sarah Poley as Maren) – all these pieces are, to my mind, extraordinary. If Hurley had been less openly seductive, and Penn replaced by an older more-motivated actor, and the hurly-burly finale less blustery -- this thing might have worked. Audiences are, I think, less in need of Fisher-Price plot motivation than Hollywoode screenwriters think. We get it. When you hammer the point home too hard, we feel tricked and disappointed.

What is the real story of the Smuttynose Murders?

In 1873 Louis Wagner, a Prussian immigrant living in Portsmouth, stole a boat and rowed to the Isles of Shoals to rob the house of a fisherman living on Smuttynose Island. Wagner knew that his former boss John Hontvet would not be home that night because they had met in Portsmouth. Honvet told Wagner that the train delivering his bait was late, forcing him and his brother-in-law Evan to leave their wives Maren and Anethe alone on the island. Wagner knew that John had been saving up for a new boat. He knew the island well because he had worked for John and lived in the house. What Wagner didn’t know was that Karen, Maren’s sister had been fired from her job working for Celia Thaxter’s family at the Appledore Hotel. Karen was sleeping in the kitchen of the house and cried out when Wagner entered the house. In a panic, Wagner hit Karen with a chair, then killed Anethe outdoors with ax as she tried to escape. Wagner returned and strangled Karen, but Maren escaped. It was Maren’s deposition that convicted Wagner who, though he denied the crime, was hanged in Alfred, Maine two years later just before the state abolished the death penalty.

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