Cert- 15, Run-time – 1 hour 53 minutes, Director – Padraic McKinley
An imprisoned father (Ethan Hawke) leads a team of prisoners to retrieve a bag of gold in the hope of freedom, however one lost piece means death.
Throughout a tense rope bridge sequence, as bars of gold are being thrown one-by-one from person-to-person the pair of stakes at hand are worn across Ethan Hawke’s face. His character, Samuel Murphy’s demeanour reminds us throughout that if just one bar is lost he and his team of fellow prisoners will be killed, and in turn his young daughter (Avy Berry) is put into care and never to be reunited with him.
The task is set by Russell Crowe’s Warden Clancy, the head of the Depression era America work camp, is at with the promise of freedom from his wrongful sentence if the job of transporting a bag full of gold bars is completed successfully. However, the team appears untrustworthy, and if one flees or fails everyone does.
In this light what plays out is a somewhat familiar story, but with Hawke’s performance we’re reminded throughout with repetition of dialogue of what’s at stake. It brings more to the somewhat light drama at hand, and tension to key sequences where the intensity lies in the team effort of an uncertain team.
Familiarity may play into the events and dampen some of the possible tension in this mid-budget drama, the kind of which is rarely made these days; something which Hawke and Crowe appear to acknowledge in their performances (although the latter gets a good deal less screen-time than the former once the journey begins). 1977’s Sorcerer in particular comes to mind on a number of occasions with the base narrative and aforementioned rope bridge sequence.
It takes some time for these moments to come together, and generally at just under two-hours the film is a slight slow burn. But, it makes for interesting viewing that holds attention through the dynamics that it displays in the team. The air of mistrust and uneasiness about the task and how anyone could cause things to go wrong for everyone at any moment during key sequences.
It’s not always something the film makes the most of, with the prisoners outside of Samuel largely feeling like rough outlines aside from one or two figures who are clearly going to play a bigger part later on. It means we’re only really following one team member, the others, despite the set-up, almost feel inconsequential, perhaps expendable – working against the stakes that have been established at the start of the mission.
But, thanks to the physical and emotional weight that we see Samuel carrying, calling back to why this is all happening in the first place, there’s a likeable film here. Just one that occasionally feels at odds with its team set up and tense sequences.
Ethan Hawke puts in a consistently strong performance that reminds us of the wider stakes at hand beyond the tension of The Weight’s bag of gold. The supporting cast may feel under-detailed but there’s enough bursts of suspense in the narrative to see things through.
