A photographic assignment researching a century-old crime on Smuttynose Island takes Jean (Catherine McCormack) on a journey where the present mixes with the past and secrets are revealed at every turn.

It is difficult to blend past and present action seamlessly, but director Kathryn Bigelow does it quite well. Jean delves into the details of an old criminal case, which involved the murder of two women and the hanging of the only man the town could find to blame. As she wades through old papers and letters, she begins stirring suspicion and emotional turmoil into her own life as she uncovers the same in 19th-century Smuttynose.

Jean wonders at the closeness of her Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet husband, Thomas (Sean Penn), and his brother's siren girlfriend Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley). The four are on a boat trip together - an intended vacation which results in eruptions of jealousy, passion and genuine fear. The chemistry between the actors is palpable throughout the film, and its compelling force makes up for the lack of action in the present-day scenes, although Hurley's slow dance with a melting ice cube sticks in the mind.

Woven into the present-day story is the historical rendition of the double-murder, which also incorporates these fierce emotions, along with more dramatic events. The mysterious, true-story history of the Smuttynose murders is the real action in this film. In 1873, an immigrant couple moves to the island off the coast of New Hampshire. The wife, Maren, is lonely and detached, even after her sister Karen moves across the seas as well. Maren is not at peace until she is joined by her brother Evan and his new wife Anethe. Maren's joy at being reunited with her brother almost equals her strange jealousy towards his new wife.

As Jean uncovers truths about Maren's past, she also tunes into the truths of her own marriage to the brooding Thomas. Increasingly bothered by the presence of Adaline and her husband's attention to the temptress, Jean's simmering anger comes to a boil during a raging storm, with dramatic results. By her own emotions, Jean realises that the town of Smuttynose may have hung an innocent man for Anethe and Karen's murders.

Bigelow tells a fast-paced story of violent deception in a very successful mixture of past and present action. Transitions are smooth and the acting in this film is superior without exception. Weight of Water is an effective interpretation of history and its close ties to the present in the ways of human emotions.