By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
ETHAN HAWKE AND RUSSELL CROWE CARRY "THE WEIGHT"
Chalk up another heavyweight performance for Ethan Hawke ("Blue Moon" and "Black Phone 2") in the gripping prison drama
"The Weight." Let's not forget Russell Crowe ("Beast" and "Nuremberg"), whose presence adds even more muscle to an already powerful cast. Director
Padraic McKinley (TV's "Debris") and co-writers
Matthew Booi ("Trench 11"),
Leo Scherman ("Trench 11"),
Matthew Chapman (TV's "Shattered"), and
Shelby Gaines ("Camino Real") bring out the best in both leading men and, really, the entire ensemble, most notably Julia Jones (TV's "The Ghost and Molly McGee").
"The Weight" is a gritty and enthralling survival story set during the Depression era, where desperation can make even the most ordinary choices feel like matters of life and death.
Samuel Murphy (Hawke) is a sharp handyman who knows his way around fixing cars. He's also a single father to an adorable little girl named Penny (a delightful Avy Berry, "A Quiet Place: Day One"). Samuel has had a tough time making a living, and things get even worse when he's evicted from his home in Eugene, Oregon. He tries to put on a brave face for Penny, but he knows his options for finding another place to live and earning enough money to support her are painfully limited.
Samuel's attempt to find housing ends with a misunderstanding involving a group of thugs. They beat him up badly, but when the police arrive, Samuel is the one hauled to jail. Poor Penny witnessed her father being beaten and taken away, and now she's separated from him and placed in foster care while Samuel is shipped off to a brutal prison work camp run by the cold and calculating warden J.J. Clancy (Crowe).
The warden initially takes a liking to Samuel. He recognizes that Samuel has a natural ability to lead the other men and appreciates his no-nonsense approach to getting things done. Plus, Samuel manages to fix his car, so there's that. But the warden has something much bigger in mind. He wants Samuel to lead a dangerous expedition through the Oregon wilderness.
Samuel is offered a deal he can't easily refuse. He's asked to smuggle several heavy gold bullion bars through a remote stretch in exchange for an early release for himself and the prisoners he trusts enough to bring along. The warden also promises that his daughter Penny will be waiting for him too. Samuel agrees. He chooses fellow prisoners Rankin (Austin Amelio, "Family Movie"), immigrant prisoner Singh (Avi Nash, TV's "Secret Service"), and young Scandinavian Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen, "The Patron") to accompany him.
To make certain the expedition stays on course, the warden sends along his lackeys, Amis (Sam Hazeldine, "Clayface") and Letender (George Burgess, "Beast") to keep a watchful eye on the prisoners. But from the beginning, there's an uneasy feeling surrounding the mission. These men aren't simply carrying gold through the wilderness, they're carrying the expectations, secrets, and desperation of people who have truly little left to lose.
With every step they take, you sense that something is about to go terribly wrong. The tension builds through a series of increasingly dangerous obstacles, including a rickety footbridge that forces the group to get creative just to make it across.
McKinley lets these moments breathe, allowing the physical danger to become almost as unsettling as the distrust developing among the men.
And when the outing takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of an Indigenous runaway named Anna (Jones), the plan becomes even more complicated. Rather than simply becoming another obstacle, Anna proves to be their most valuable ally, even saving one of the men from drowning in a freezing river.
Still, loyalties become increasingly difficult to decipher, and the men are forced to confront the uncomfortable reality that survival may require them to question everyone standing beside them.
Samuel, however, has never lost sight of what matters most: getting back to Penny. His plan to double-cross the people who put him on this dangerous path involves using the very crew the warden believes he controls.
What follows gives Hawke plenty of room to show the complicated determination beneath Samuel's seemingly quiet exterior, while Crowe makes J.J. Clancy the kind of adversary whose authority becomes more threatening the more comfortable he is wielding it.
What I especially liked about "The Weight" is that every character is burdened by something different from fear, loyalty, guilt, to survival, or the hope of making it back to someone they love.
Hawke anchors the film with a performance that doesn't need to shout to command attention, while Crowe brings an imposing stillness to J.J. Clancy.
By the time Samuel's choices finally catch up with him, "The Weight" has become much more than a story about survival, prison, or a dangerous haul of gold. It's about what a person is willing to risk when the thing waiting on the other side means more than the danger standing in the way. Samuel may have started the journey carrying gold, but what drives him forward is far more valuable, and far harder to surrender.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Watch This Trailer For
"THE WEIGHT"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
