Ethan Hawke’s recent run of quality work on film and television is unparalleled. He received his first Oscar nomination for his work as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon, and his time on FX’s The Lowdown is well worth a binge. That The Weight isn’t a bigger deal says more about the time we live in than the film’s quality. A survival movie starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe even 15 years ago would’ve been a big deal. But don’t let the lack of buzz dissuade you. If you skip this film, you’re missing out on a solid piece of cinema.
Sam Murphy (Ethan Hawke) mistakes some plainclothes officers for reasonable men and finds himself hightailed to a prison camp. A single father, Sam can’t afford to spend the rest of his days incarcerated. Breaking rocks in silence, Murphy hopes that good behaviour will reduce his sentence. His daughter only has weeks before she’s placed for adoption as a ward of the state. So when Warden Clancy (a delightfully on-point Russell Crowe) offers him a highly illegal chance to cut his sentence short, Sam takes the deal. The only catch: they have to smuggle gold through the Northwest wilderness.
We’ve seen multiple variations on the parent does a bad thing to save their child formula. The steely glint in Hawke’s eyes lets you know he’ll go to any lengths to keep his daughter safe. Don’t make assumptions about the other chain-gang members. Rankin (Austin Amelio), Anna (Julia Jones), and Singh (Avi Nash) are amiable enough, but they have their own reasons to move gold too. That much money during the Depression will make people do just about anything. Even cutting throats. The convicts are transporting government gold across the wilderness, knowing an unscrupulous warden will toss their bodies aside if anything goes wrong. It’s high stakes in the most personal way.
Crowe plays the corrupt warden with all the relish and sleaze you would expect from a man who sanctions illegal operations in his prison. That gold that he needs transporting? He’s moving it because a presidential order will seize it from the prison. Power is a tool wielded without mercy. The warden will do whatever is necessary to move the gold before Roosevelt’s men arrive. Crowe luxuriates in the cruelty with which he assigns life or death, full well knowing he might be the worst person in the prison complex. The only problem with his performance is that he’s not in the film longer.
The script, by Shelby Gaines and Matthew Booi, traffics in tropes, but it keeps the story lean and the accelerator down. Set in the Pacific Northwest during the Depression, the conditions create tension only filming on location can achieve. Without the tangible forest dangers in the frame, the actors and audience would simply check out. The Weight’s production crew aced every detail of the period piece. I haven’t appreciated the technical aspects of a period piece like this since The Brutalist.
Matteo Cocco’s lensing is another plus. A scene set during a lightning storm will stay with me for weeks. If you enjoyed Train Dreams, Cocco also uses vintage anamorphic lenses to lend the film a dreamy atmosphere. Beautiful images that starkly contrast with the brutality of the action. One of several paradoxes that define the film. These prisoners are on this unsanctioned mission because the state determined them immoral. Warden Clancy might be the greediest and most depraved character in the film, yet he’s in charge. Many of the prisoners are on the street through no fault of their own. Wall Street bankers bankrupted the world with their egregious behaviour, yet men like Murphy pay the price. The Weight doesn’t dwell on its social commentary, but it’s present if you’re looking.
Some of the larger sequences are shot to conceal the limited budget. The handheld camera obfuscates several areas that would require CGI. Movies this old-school have to be stripped down to get made. Don’t be surprised if the lack of resources also makes you blush. But even with a limited budget, The Weight steadily ramps up the anxiety to an unbearable degree. Likening a film to Sorcerer comes with expectations. While William Friedkin’s film didn’t set the box office on fire, it’s highly regarded and one of the most stressful watches ever made. The Weight pulls off comparable feats, including a rope-bridge scene where you can hear a pin drop in the audience.
Welcome to the big show, Padraic McKinley! Known primarily for editing TV series The Good Lord Bird and The Loudest Voice in the Room, McKinley slides into the director’s chair to deliver a solid thriller. McKinley knows, from his time as an editor, to use long takes for most shots. Cuts naturally ease tension. If the camera moves to something else, we assume what it was looking at must not matter. In a long take, the tension simmers. We don’t know if someone will snap, pull a gun, or upend the entire narrative. Given the combustible situation Murphy and his crew are in, it’s best not to blink.
If you’ve been following Ethan Hawke recently, it won’t surprise you that his performance stands out. He plays the gruff Murphy with all the reticence and cool of a man hardened by years of misery. But the light hasn’t been extinguished. Murphy can’t trust anyone, but he still has compassion for the mistreated souls on the trek. With that much money on the line, it’s easy to doubt Hawke is doing it all for his daughter. Yet when he shows off that flinty determination (like in his turn as John Brown in The Good Lord Bird), you believe him.
Released at the end of summer and with no marketing, The Weight will likely fade into the background. That’s a shame because it’s a genre piece featuring great turns by reliable actors. If it’s playing near you, please give it a shot.
