The Weight

by Mike McGranaghan

The Weight relies on one of the most tried-and-true cinematic plots: a parent putting themselves through hell for the sake of their child. It’s an inherently emotional premise, and it can be adapted in a million different ways. Director Padraic McKinley’s film marries it to the Great Depression, creating a nerve-shredding tale that looks at several different types of desperation.

Mechanic Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is a single dad to young daughter Penny (Avy Berry). When he gets arrested and sent to a work camp, she’s taken into foster care. Murphy has only thirty days to get her out before she’s placed for adoption, but his sentence is much longer than that. An opportunity presents itself when the warden, Clancy (Russell Crowe), makes an offer. If Murphy can put together a small team of men to move a fortune in gold across 100 miles of brutal wilderness, he’ll sign the form for an early release. There can be no mistakes. If a single bar of gold doesn’t get from Point A to Point B, the deal is off.

Watching The Weight, I was reminded of William Friedkin’s 1977 masterpiece Sorcerer, in which four men drive a truck loaded with nitroglycerine through the jungle. It has that same kind of nail-biting tension. There are dangerous physical conditions Murphy and team must contend with, like the need to traverse a river. A suspicious forest dweller encounters the group, senses they have valuable cargo, and brings his buddies to kill them for it. (There are shades of John Boorman’s Deliverance in this section.) The most harrowing scene finds the men trying to figure out how to cross a rickety suspension bridge that can barely hold a man’s weight without a satchel of gold strapped to his back.

Those elements ensure the film keeps you on the edge of your seat, as McKinley stages them for ultra-realism. Interactions between the characters reveal psychological threats to match the physical ones. Murphy has to worry about whether one of his men will try to run off with part of the gold, thereby dooming his chances of reuniting with Penny. The two goons sent by the mine owner to supervise the mission don’t always seem trustworthy. There’s also the matter of a Native woman named Anna (Julia Jones) who joins the crew and is subjected to harassment. Drama pops up all around Murphy, making for riveting viewing.

Ethan Hawke continues his string of recent grand-slam performances. He provides Murphy with a striking combination of fear and determination, both fueled by his desire to get Penny back. You can feel the panic that drives everything this character does, thanks to Hawke’s emotionally layered work. Russell Crowe has a relatively small role, yet he embodies no-nonsense toughness as Clancy. The actor injects a subtle sense of humanity inside the warden while also making you wonder if that humanity is real or merely a put-on to manipulate Murphy. These two powerhouse actors ignite the screen.

Atmospherically photographed and tightly edited, The Weight is a film that keeps you transfixed from start to finish. It’s continually exciting, with a touching theme about the lengths a father will go to for his daughter. As for that incongruous Lynyrd Skynyrd song at the end? Hey, when a movie is this good, a weird grace note is no big deal.