The Weight

I often feel like I’m paddling through life on a river with way too many rapids. That said, I can’t imagine what I’d be saying if I had lived through the Great Depression. Compared to my rapids, that looks like a tsunami. Whenever I watch a movie set during that time and see what people did to survive, I almost can’t blame them. Things were just that tough. Padraic McKinley’s new film, The Weight, offers another glimpse into that world, and it’s one worth watching.

Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is a simple man trying to survive and raise his daughter, Penny (Avy Berry). He’s a loving father, but he’s also protective, and after some punches are thrown, he’s sentenced to six months of hard labor. There, he meets Clancy (Russell Crowe), who sees something in Samuel and offers him a chance to get out early. With his daughter at risk of being placed in state custody, Samuel can’t afford to turn him down.

The job sounds simple enough: carry bags of gold through the Oregon woods and deliver them to someone waiting on the other side. Samuel heads out with a handful of fellow inmates, all promised early release if they get it done. Of course, this is no stroll through the woods, and they aren’t the only ones interested in that gold. Along the way, they meet Anna (Julia Jones), who joins them. As the journey goes on, it becomes clear that everyone needs to watch their back, and there may be more to this job than they were told.

Written by Matthew Booi, Shelby Gains, and Matthew Chapman, The Weight tells a pretty straightforward story that would have felt right at home in the seventies. I read that McKinley wanted to make a “soulful action drama” in the vein of Sorcerer and Deliverance, and I’d say he pulled it off. You feel every pound in those bags, and McKinley keeps the tension simmering throughout. You never know what’s waiting around the next bend, but you’re pretty sure it won’t be good. There’s a little humor along the way, but this is a movie that takes its characters’ suffering seriously, and it hits hard because of it.

The Weight digs into what greed does to people and how far a father will go for his child. Much of its power comes from quieter moments, with sweat, exhaustion, and distrust doing plenty of the work. McKinley knows how to make each obstacle feel like it matters, but the tension between the six men is just as gripping as anything they face in the woods. Getting the gold to its destination is one thing. Trusting the people carrying it alongside you is another.

The cast makes you believe every bit of that struggle, with Hawke and Jones standing out the most. Hawke is exceptional as Samuel, a man who can’t seem to put down the guilt he carries. As heavy as those bags of gold are, you get the feeling what’s going on inside him weighs even more, hence the title.

For everything The Weight does so well, its one stumble is the ending. Things wrap up a little too neatly for my taste, especially after a journey this messy and punishing. I would have preferred a little more ambiguity, something that left me sitting with it rather than feeling like everything had been settled.

Still, that feels like a blemish on an otherwise great movie. They don’t make enough of these anymore, and when one comes along that’s this captivating and devastating, it deserves your attention. The Weight is worth its weight in movie gold.

Brian Taylor

Member of the North Texas Film Critics Association, and lover of all things Cinema