The Weight – Review

It is 1933 and deep into The Great Depression. Samuel Murphy (Hawke) zooms along lonesome roads surrounded by fields, pretending to be on a police chase to thrill his daughter Penny (Berry). Maybe this is one last fun drive before he “puts the car on blocks to save on gas,” or so his daughter thinks. He is selling tires and parts for money, as they are desperate.

He makes odd money as a mechanic, helping neighbors out, trying to get rent for his apartment. As he heads to church, he cannot tithe, and as he gets home, it is to an eviction with his belongings on the stairs. Oof.

What is next for this down on his luck and out of work single father? As he finds a closed shop and walks down an alleyway, he peers in some windows and gets razzed by police for trying to squat, or possibly break in and steal, which he denies. This separates him from his daughter and kick starts the plot.

As Sam is sent to the Deschutes County Convict Labor Camp in Oregon, he meets the baseball obsessed warden, Clancy (Crowe), and is set on a new course. Clancy aims to make convicts responsible through hard labor and its fruits, and all the men get a day off their sentence for every two worked, and a daily wage is paid, minus expenses.

Despite a slow setup, The Weight is not boring and eventually dips into some interesting plot turns and criminal behaviors. This is not a pure prison abuse film with a rugged and evil warden making hell around him, even if it has some familiar notes. The story winds up being good enough for the slow action drama to make its way to its climax.

Great acting and strong production values help create a high-quality picture. Everyone sinks into their characters, and it is well shot to elicit the 1930s and an older age. There are a few well-utilized tidbits of history which help form the core plot, including FDR’s federal reserve of gold and its impact on local communities.

The film has its own pressure and subtle tension even in its slower moments. Once a main story forms, the stress drives the characters’ actions and behaviors, which give it a bit of an unpredictable nature. For the most part this is a fairly small cast and contained story, but it feels well realized. Music fits the movie well and enhances most scenes and is well used to increase suspense. If you can handle slower crawls, this tale is interesting.

“People get funny around gold. They’ll lie, cheat, they’ll kill you for it. Ya hear?”