Grade: C

Verdict: A dense, pressing drama which ultimately drowns in its own gravity.

Details: Starring Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity and brief language. 113 minutes. Limited release.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for The Weight of Water

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Review: Kathryn Bigelow's "The Weight of Water" may be the year's most suitably titled movie, a dense, pressing drama that's impressively fluid in reach but which ultimately drowns in its own gravity.

Sean Penn heads the cast, but it's the women--especially Catherine McCormack and Sarah Polley--who dominate the story and present the most interesting figures.

Adapted from Anita Shreve's novel, "The Weight of Water" tells parallel tales more than a century apart, reminiscent of the recent romantic drama "Possession." The themes of "The Weight of Water" cut much deeper and darker, though, and the juxtaposition of the stories is far more convoluted.

Early on, Bigelow ("K-19: The Widowmaker") holds the serpentine narrative together with finesse, and the performers subtly peel away their characters' dutiful domestic masquerades to reveal discontent and even wretchedness.

But the back-and-forth cuts from past to present turn heavy-handed, and the film takes on so much emotionally brackish water that the narrative sours and the dual climaxes disappoint. The film has been kicking around at festivals for a couple of years, likely delayed in its commercial release because the gloomy vision makes it a hard sell.

McCormack plays Jean, a photographer obsessed with the subject of her magazine piece, the 1873 murder of two Norwegian women who immigrated to New Hampshire. Accompanied by husband Thomas (Penn), a brooding, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Jean visits the Isles of Shoals where the slayings took place to get a feel for the region and research the crime.

The couple hooks up with Thomas' brother, Rich (Josh Lucas), and his bombshell girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley), aboard Rich's sailboat. Jean and Thomas intend to use her working trip as a holiday from their young son and discontented home life.

Instead, the familiar exchanges between Thomas and Adaline fires Jean's suspicion and jealousy, over both the immediate threat of Adaline and the romantic distance Thomas has manifested throughout their marriage.

McCormack infuses Jean with an authentic air of emotional anguish, and Hurley and Lucas add some welcome levity. But Penn comes off as a bit of a one-note gloomy Gus.

Jean's apprehensions begin to mix with her growing conviction that an innocent man was punished for the murders a century earlier. The events of 1873 unravel as Jean tries to sort out what really led to the killings.

Polley plays Maren, a young Norwegian wife who survived the assault that killed her sister (Katrin Cartlidge, who died in September of complications from pneumonia) and sister-in-law (Vinessa Shaw), slayings for which a former lodger (Ciaran Hinds) was convicted and executed.

Like "Possession," the 19th-century story is more intriguing and the past characters more passionate than the contemporary ones. Polley dominates the film, lyrically blending Maren's outward docility with a muted sense of madness and misery beneath the surface.

"I knew I could never leave the island," Maren confesses in a voice-over. "I had to bite my cheek to keep from breaking into tears that, once started, might continue forever."

That sentiment encapsulates the dour mood throughout the film, which becomes ponderous as it eventually discloses the real story of 1873, intercut with muddled events that result in tragedy for the contemporary characters.

In the end, Bigelow dumps so much on viewers so abruptly, that when the tide rolls back, bleakness is all that's left behind.

— David Germain, The Associated Press