The Weight of Water (film)

The Weight of Water is a 2000 psychological thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Catherine McCormack, Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley, Josh Lucas, Vinessa Shaw, Katrin Cartlidge, Ciarán Hinds, and Sarah Polley. Based on Anita Shreve's 1997 novel of the same name, it follows a newspaper photographer who, while researching the murders of two Norwegian immigrants that occurred in the Isles of Shoals in 1873, finds her own life paralleling that of a witness to the crime. The film is told in a nonlinear narrative fashion, contrasting the contemporary events with the semi-fictionalized historical events.

A co-production between the United States and France, The Weight of Water was filmed in late 1999 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It premiered at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival before screening at several other film festivals, though it was not released in the United States until November 1, 2002, by Lionsgate Films. It was a box-office bomb, grossing $321,279 against a $16 million budget, and received largely unfavorable reviews from film critics.