The Weight draws you in with all the qualities that make cinema an art form. Then it tightens its grip and refuses to let go. Lyrical and layered with sweeping, meditative imagery, the new film is practically Raymond Carver-esque, finding rugged poetry of mud, timber, and the unforgiving Oregon wilderness. Yet danger lurks beneath all that beauty. Not to mention a performance from its star that has mettle in its bones.
Ethan Hawke delivers yet another minimalist, authentic performance that feels deeply lived-in. His character is like Robert Grainier if Grainier had the nerve to pull up his pants, tie his shoes, roll up his sleeves, and take what he wants. Weathered and quietly magnetic, he delivers a subtle yet emotionally precise turn that carries the film because you simply cannot take your eyes off him. Which, on the surface, is quite a feat.
Why? Because the movie hinges on the audience being drawn into its imagery and tension. All while hanging its hat on Hawke’s range. Which, like a sip of Pacific Northwest apple brandy, has only gotten better with age. Reliable yet inventive. Soulful in its imagery yet soulless in its actions. Calculated yet wild. The Weight is cinematic comfort food at its finest—the kind that transports you to another time and place.
Ethan Hawke plays Samuel Muthen, who finds placement in foster care, with the possibility of adoption within 30 days, after defending his daughter, Penny (the adorable Avy Berry), from a group of drunken cops. Samuel goes to jail, while authorities place Penny in a group home. The government will then find placement in foster care, with the possibility of adoption in a month. A single father, Samuel vows he will get her back.
The problem is that Samuel is sent to a work camp in Oregon. While there, he performs brutal labor for the next six months. However, Warden Clancy (Academy Award winner Russell Crowe) hears Samuel’s story and recognizes his maturity, work ethic, and intelligence. At that point, he decides to offer Samuel a chance to leave the work camp before his daughter enters foster care.
In 1933, as the banking system collapsed and Americans hoarded gold after losing faith in banks and paper currency, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered them to surrender privately held monetary gold to the federal government. Clancy then hires Samuel and three other prisoners to help safely transfer the gold into government hands. If Samuel delivers, he can get his daughter back.
Director Padraic McKinley (The Good Lord Bird) works from an original screenplay by Matthew Booi (Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan) and trusted Ethan Hawke collaborator Shelby Gaines, who previously worked with Hawke on Wildcat and his greatest directorial achievement, Blaze. Their film plunges viewers into weathered-male Americana, where the lawless and the unlucky live on society’s margins.
The film is an elevated genre picture of the highest order, ranging from “The Dirty Half Dozen” to “Gold Dreams,” and laying out a gripping, rhythmic roll call of shady, dangerous, eccentric, and down-on-their-luck characters—from thieves, killers, bucshwackers, crooked lawmen, and garden-variety desperados to the generally doomed, all with somehting even heavier than gold on their conscious.
The Weight is a thriller that serves as an ode to stoicism, yet by the final scenes, it develops a streak of fiddle-funk swagger that makes a fairly predictable ending feel fresh and alive. It’s the type of heist film that feels like visual poetry in motion, yet still has dirt under its fingernails. Call it rough-hewn lyricism with a mettle criminal streak, McKinley’s film earns every ounce of its title.
You can watch The Weight exclusively in theaters starting September 18th!
Ethan Hawke carries The Weight with mettle in his bones, elevating the kind of heist film that finds visual poetry in the dirt beneath its fingernails.
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I am a film and television critic and a proud member of the Las Vegas Film Critic Society, Critics Choice Association, and a 🍅 Rotten Tomatoes/Tomato meter approved. However, I still put on my pants one leg at a time, and that’s when I often stumble over. When I’m not writing about movies, I patiently wait for the next Pearl Jam album and pass the time by scratching my wife’s back on Sunday afternoons while she watches endless reruns of California Dreams. I was proclaimed the smartest reviewer alive by actor Jason Isaacs, but I chose to ignore his obvious sarcasm. You can also find my work on InSession Film, Ready Steady Cut, Hidden Remote, Music City Drive-In, Nerd Alert, and Film Focus Online.
