The Weight begs comparison to the Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 French classic Wages of Fear, remade in 1977 as Sorcerer by director William Friedkin. Like his predecessors, first-time director Padraic McKinley offers a stripped-down Depression Era story about men facing perilous conditions as they transport gold through the wilds of Oregon. An action-oriented plot kicks in when the warden of a camp prison (Russell Crowe) offers Ethan Hawke’s Murphy an opportunity to win a pardon. Wrongly convicted and eager to reunite with the young daughter who has been sent to foster care, the widowed Murphy selects a gang of cohorts for a mission that will take them through rough terrain. The prisoners are accompanied by guards (Sam Hazeldine and George Burgess) who leave the heavy lifting to the convicts. At one point, they must get the gold across a rope bridge that can only support the weight of one of them. McKinley builds suspense into the movie’s set pieces and adds flavor with supporting characters, notably troublemaker Rankin (Austin Amelio) and a native-American woman (Julia Jones) who joins the prisoners’ foray. Played by a grizzled-looking Hawke with fierce determination, Murphy emerges as a natural leader who dominates the proceedings. Does The Weight measure up to its predecessors? Not quite, but it offers a serviceable helping of tension as its characters confront one danger after another. And, yes, when it comes to gold, you can bet that deceit and greed will be in play.
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