Search - Waterland on DVD

A story well told, a novel well adapted...

Jens Haetty | Burlington, VT United States | 02/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is one of those rare moments in life, when you go to a movie theatre, and just purchase a ticket for the next-best movie, not knowing (or caring) what it is about. In one particular case, this was "Waterland", and the money felt well-spent. The original novel the film is based on is set in England. Incomprehensible as it may seem to some to change the setting to a place in the USA for those parts that describe the adult life of that frustrated and unhappy history teacher, it gives the story added depth. The angle from which the movie develops the plot (a teacher, exiled in the US if you will, is challenged from all sides to defend the value of history) is compelling since it unravels most beautifully and emotionally the teacher's own involvement with it. I do not want to give away what the story twists are, go into the film as I did. But the way the movie uses two different time lines to tell the whole story, and interweaves them artfully, is brillant. Jeremy Irons (I actually did not know him at the time, believe it or not) is most fitting as the main character. Ethan Hawke, well I guess they had to pick somebode to play a rebellious pupil, is not bad, but his performance does not contol the movie. Sinead Cusack, on the other hand, plays so convincingly the part of the teacher's wife, still hunted by the common past, that this role is sort of stuck to her in my view."

A beautiful underrated film

prettyclouds26 | el paso, texas United States | 12/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"i wonder why this movie hasn't had the appreciation i think it deserves. it is beautifully shot and has a devastating story of guilt, love, redemption and a couple other underlying themes that i'm sure i forgot. oh my god, and i'm telling you the ending will send your eyes to niagra falls. totally satisfies my depressed movie jones. love this!"

Quiet Perfection From Jeremy Irons

Natasha Conn | Las Cruces, NM USA | 12/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I found this movie on IFC late last night and remembered the lasting effects it had on me when it first came out. Irons plays a Pittsburgh history teacher who escapes his crumbling marriage by weaving tales of his family history into his school lessons, he and the students literally walking into WWI veteran hospitals and his childhood home of the English Fens. Irons brings a fragile power to the professor knowing his day his done, his final speech to the school, accompanied by the somber score, incredibly moving. His real life wife Sinead Cusack plays his spouse, ravaged by some dark secret. Though she overdoes the wailing a bit, only Dick Cheney could be unmoved by the closing scenes. See it if only for Irons' gulping smoke rings scene in the bar with Ethan Hawke - the great tortured actor of our era, in one of his best."

Intensely emotional story of a couple facing their past.

Natasha Conn | 12/05/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My father and I saw this moview together many years ago and we came out stunned. While my father found it depressing, I insist it is not. The story is wrenching but worthwile for the expansive sense of unity and catharthis at the end. The story deals with the tragic consequences of alcoholism, incest, lack of sex-ed, pre-marital sex and illegal/unsafe abortions. Heavy, but an incredible movie."