By Dan Skip Allen 

Movies are the litmus test of the world as we know it today. We learn about our world through the stories from the past. Even if they are fictional stories, they can be educational. That’s the case here with “The Weight.” It’s a fictional story about the Great Depression but it has a message a lot of people who struggle now can relate to. Padraic McKinley directs based on the story from Shelby Gaines, Matthew Chapman, and Matthew Booi with the original concept from Booi and Leo Sherman. It has a vibe from other prison stories but has an original take on them. I’m sure most viewers who watch it will be pleased by what they see. 

Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is the father of a little girl, Penny (Avy Berry), from Oregon in 1933. He’s struggling financially because of the state of the country.The country is four years deep into the Great Depression. He gets word of a job but instead gets beat up and put in jail for loitering outside a building. His girl gets put in a home for displaced children while her father gets sent to the Dutchess County Work Camp for his troubles. He works on a dangerous road crew, but its boss, Prison Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe), offers this desperate older man a way to see his daughter again. Him and a handful of other inmates on the crew are asked to go to the Black Hawk Gold Mines Inc, Plot 7, to take their gold which would have gone to the government across a 100 acres of dense forest wilderness to a man waiting there for them on the other side. If they do this dangerous journey on foot, they will have their freedom.The problem is that nothing works out the way it’s supposed to, go figure. 

Hawke has played a lot of different kinds of characters in his long and storied career. I’ve been a fan of his for years ever since I saw him in “Dead Poets Society”. Ever since I’ve loved him in the “Before Trilogy”, “Boyhood” and “Training Day”. He’s even done his fair share of horror in “Sinister” and “The Black Phone” films. He’s done it all in his career. This character is one I haven’t seen him play before, even though he’s done his fair share of period piece movies. Once he’s in prison, he isn’t playing poker like some other guys are. He’s trying to figure a way to get back to his little daughter. He gets into fights and has to try to let the younger guys he’s not messing around. This offer from the prison Warden means a lot to him. It’s his best/only way to get free of the he’ll he’s in. Hawk shows a different side of himself as this character. I really liked what I saw. He is proving once again why he’s one of the best working actors of his generation. This film and his FX show “The Lowdown” are the reasons why I keep looking forward to seeing him on the big and small screen. 

Hawke isn’t the only one doing good work in this movie. The cast is filled with Stiller character actors doing solid work here. Starting with a couple of prison inmates played by Austin Amelio as Rankin. At first he and Hawke’s character don’t get along, but eventually, they see eye to eye. Sam Hazeldine, Jeffery Hallman, and Alec Newman plays Amis, Big and Taggart, as prison guards. They are exactly what you’d think of these characters, mean, ugly, and ornery guys. They add a nice element to the story of this journey. Julia Jones plays Anna, a native American woman who is trying to get away from her own situation, so she offers the men her services as a guide through the dense dark forest. She befriends the Hawke character. This was a terrific supporting cast. They all add a nice aspect to this crime, survival, thriller complimenting Hawke’s character.

With a film like this that’s filmed in such a location as this one, you know you’re going to have some beautiful looking cinematography. Matteo Cocco takes advantage of the beautiful wooded area with streams, rivers, waterfalls, and a blood red moon thrown into boot. Nature makes for some beautiful cinematography and especially when a movie is made in the Pacific Northwest like this one was. At night, there were some darker scenes that were harder to see, but occasionally, there were fires to light up the characters’ faces, and the moon, as I mentioned, provided some light. This was a decision by the director. I’m sure to give the film a more raw/darker look.

McKinley added a few curveballs into this film courtesy of the screenwriters. There was a life or death river crossing, shootouts with local civilians who wanted what the prisoners were carrying in their packs, fist fights between prisoners and guards, a dangerous bridge crossing and car chases with old-timey cars. There was definitely a lot of drama in this movie. What seemed like a pretty simple premise proved to be a dense and layered story with twists and turns as dense as the forest these men were traveling through. Just when I thought things were finished in the action or drama categories, the film added in more plot developments. That’s what I love about movies when they are done right.

“The Weight” had a twofold story aspect to its title. The first most obvious one was the gold in the packs of these men tracking through the unforgiving treacherous forest. The second was what was on the mind of the main character played by Hawke. He had a lot on his mind regarding the threats from the prisoners, guards, and locals, but the biggest thing on his mind was his little girl. That was the biggest proverbial weight in this film as far as the Hawke character was concerned. I love it when a story and film have multiple layers of story to get involved with. Throw in a fantastic cast led by Hawke and a terrific supporting cast, beautiful cinematography, and fantastic production design with a spot-on period look of everything. This movie was worth the “wait”, pun intended, from when it originally premiered at last January’s Sundance Film Festival. People should definitely see this small indie film.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars