Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE WEIGHT [Berlinale - Berlin, Germany]

"The Weight" [Berlinale Special Gala] is an interesting foray of possibility versus circumstance. It also functions as a cool period piece with a tight script, cool locations, the right amount of action and some cool acting choices especially with Ethan Hawke. Hawke's brother Ryan produced the film and the script is by Shelby Gaines who also does the blues and country infused score. All these come together is a very efficient and solid package. After recently playing more beatniks and laid back guys (which he is good at), watching a clean shaven Hawke as the character Murphy go head to head in certain scenes with Russell Crowe is great and then take it on into the wilderness with equal precision. Crowe has some of that grit from "The Quick And The Dead" (and he is also losing some weight) but that never takes away from the power of his acting. This is probably the most primal we have seen Hawke since "Training Day" but with a newly earned maturity. A few gray hairs are showing. That said, "The Weight" does function well as an ensemble piece because of what the backdrop dictates. It starts off at a labor camp which Hawke's Murphy gets to by means that shouldn't have happened. This is set during the Great Depression in Oregon so there is a lot of elements going on off the cuff. In being locked up, Murphy loses his young daughter Penny who is his whole life. The intention of what happened to the mother is kept a little fuzzy on purpose. Ultimately the story becomes about a group of three other men who each have their own lives going back through 50 miles of wilderness with packs of gold on their back aimed to be turned over to the government. On top of this, they have two armed guards watching over them. Plus there are loggers and hunters in their stretch of wilderness.

In a film that could be very by the book, this narrative plays with character tropes but also uses the environment (the film was shot in Bulgaria) as a distinct player in the game. Also in the fray is Julia Jones as Anna (a probably not so subtle reference to the first "Predator") who in many ways becomes Murphy's guardian angel and he hers. Their interaction is never overplayed and even the pursuit of it is not made concrete in the end. Jones is steely and yet accessible in what she wants but how to survive. A sequence with logs coming down a river is the most harrowing and telling but says so much about each of the characters. Lucas Lynggaad Tonnese as a young Scandinavian dad named Olson is the most tragic which you wouldn't have seen from the beginning. In many ways this is Murphy's "Heart Of Darkness" though he never has one blip of voice over. This is the hand he has been dealt and whether Kurtz waits for him or not, it is about making the best choices (even when there is no choice). Murphy's intent is basically down to getting back to his daughter but he also has loyalty to those he vouched for. But the strategy we see at the beginning and a bit later between Hawke and Crowe (who only has a few scenes in the movie) really sell the world that we see without it becoming a contrivance. But that has to do with the environment, a steadfast leading man trying not to be a leading man and the right script and music. "The Weight" has all that. There is even Alec Newman, known for Sci-Fi's "Dune" miniseries as the security head of the gold and he lays the stakes out pretty well before they set out on the mission. "The Weight" is an efficient, entertaining and movie theater worthy experience that gets what it is, understands it purpose and does it very well. A

By Tim Wassberg