Is this drama worth your time and hard earned cash?

When I first saw the trailer for this way back in June, I thought that while not a Coen Brothers film, it certainly looked like one, and it peaked my interest. So, on Friday the 2nd of October, I found myself at the cinema with my ticket in hand, and what awaited me surprised me.

It’s stylised like this was a Joel and Ethan Coen film, and if you didn’t see the beginning or end credits, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was. Set during the Great Depression, Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is a recently widowed father to a little girl, Penny. Down on his luck and unable to make ends meet, the small family find themselves evicted and looking for new lodgings. When attempting to look inside an available apartment, he is assaulted by three men, and of course, he fights back. It’s not until the three men identify themselves as Police Officers does Samuel’s life begin to take a drastic downturn.
Some months later while serving his prison sentence, Samuel is given the opportunity to have his sentence ended early by Warden Clancy, provided he complete a task that entrusts him with a fortune in mined gold. With a few other fellow inmates, and two prison guards, Samuel finds himself embroiled in a task that will test his very ability to survive.

Directed by movie newcomer Padraic McKinley, this film really was an admirable effort by all concerned. Ethan Hawke stole the show. His performance was nuanced, considered and powerful. While this is not an Oscar worthy film, his performance is certainly worthy of a nomination. The supporting cast are great too, but they settle more into the background the more the film progresses.

The story is a little idiotic. I mean, who would ever trust four or five convicted criminals who are still serving a sentence to smuggle gold across a border, with only two armed guards supervising them? It makes little sense, but if you were to smuggle gold out of reach of taxes and the people who mined it, then using people you can frame or throw away does make a bit of sense.

The pacing is generally quite good, but the story feels like it never really sprouts it’s wings and takes flight. At points there are moments where you feel the tension and you’re waiting for something much more explosive to happen. There are a few moments where this does happen, but the film fails more times than it succeeds. The dialogue is very well written, and carried perfectly by the cast. There’s no bloaty exposition, no filler, just conversations and sub-story arcs that make sense as the film plods along at it’s own pace.

As I’ve already said, the film is stylised just like a Coen Brothers film, and while it never reaches the heights of these two brilliant directors, it does hold it’s own under the direction of McKinley, but what it doesn’t do, is carry over exactly what the film is titled as, weight! It’s quite a thin film in it’s premise, and you can see the deception of the outside players from a mile away, and that’s without wearing glasses, behind a ten foot brick wall.

The visuals in this film are glorious, with a lot of attention paid to the period accurate details. I sense this is where most of the budget found itself being spent. However, adding Russell Crowe onto the marketing of this film is a little misleading, as he plays a bit part at the start and end of the film, rather than a major role. But let’s be honest, if we were to make this film and have both Hawke and Crowe in the film, I would certainly utilise there star power to sell the film to the viewing masses.

With all of it’s issues, I can’t help but recommend The Weight. It’s not perfect, but that’s fine because the acting by almost all concerned really does carry the weightless story through it’s 113 minutes. Hawke is a standout player here, and he fully embodies the character to a faultless point. He’s not a good man, but he’s not a bad one either. And this makes for a very interesting character study in a time where characters on the big screen are very much black and white in tone.

With all that said, I give The Weight…

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Until the next review…keep your nose clean, stay out of trouble, and never trust Russell Crowe if he asks you about gold! Peace!