Gritty, tense, and beautifully unfussy, director Padraic McKinley’s Depression-era survival story “The Weight” is an old school thriller that has the feel of a 1970s adventure movie while still giving its characters plenty of emotional weight. This is an deftly executed drama that I loved from beginning to end.
Ethan Hawke stars as Samuel Murphy, a man in 1933 Oregon who has been separated from his daughter and sent to a brutal labor camp. His only chance at getting out early is a dangerous deal with the camp’s ruthless warden, Clancy (Russell Crowe), where he’s tasked with leading a group of convicts into the wilderness to smuggle heavy bars of gold before the government can confiscate them. This straightforward mission is anything but, and the trek grows more and more dangerous as greed, paranoia and betrayal begin eating away at the group.
The writing is strong, and the story kept me guessing right up until the end. There are so many turns along the way that I stopped trying to predict where it was going and just enjoyed the ride. Despite the deliberate period setting and rugged atmosphere, the movie moves faster than you might expect. It’s tightly constructed and builds tension without constantly stopping to explain itself.
The casting is terrific, too. Hawke is fantastic, and his Murphy is a refreshingly old-school kind of hero who is defined less by macho posturing than by endurance, integrity and an unwavering determination to get back to his daughter. His journey through the wilderness becomes more than a physical ordeal, and there’s always something compelling about watching a character whose strength comes from simply refusing to give up. Crowe brings a nasty, intimidating presence to Clancy, and the contrast between these two men gives the movie much of its dramatic charge. The labor camp itself also adds an effective layer of social commentary, portraying a system that treats desperate men as disposable labor rather than human beings.
And then there’s the gold. Those heavy bars are practically another character, constantly reminding everyone that the thing they’re risking their lives to carry could also be what destroys them. The movie understands how quickly the promise of wealth can turn cooperation into suspicion when survival depends on people trusting one another.
McKinley is so skilled at building tension in situations that don’t seem that exciting. There’s one particularly intense scene involving a rickety rope bridge that’s a real standout, putting the characters hundreds of feet above a ravine while they struggle to get the gold across. It’s exactly the sort of clean, physical, high stakes action that works because you can understand the danger immediately. No complicated gimmicks are needed.
My one real complaint is the sound mix. Some of the dialogue is delivered so quietly with so much whispering that I occasionally struggled to catch what was being said. It’s frustrating because the writing is so great that I wanted to hear every word. But that’s a relatively minor flaw in a movie this well made.
Tough, tense, and even surprisingly moving, “The Weight” gets everything right. From its strong writing, terrific performances, wonderfully rugged throwback style, and a story full of surprises, this is a really great film. Beneath the survival thriller is a thoughtful story about fatherhood, greed, institutional cruelty and the things people will endure for the people they love.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 