Film Review – The Weight

September 17th, 2026 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

Ethan Hawke has been such a good actor for such a long time that his talents may fly under the radar. He inhabits his characters effortlessly, without a trace of pretension. Whether it is a man going through the ups and downs of romance in The Before Trilogy, a rookie cop pushed to his limit in Training Day (2001), a priest experiencing a spiritual crisis in First Reformed (2017), or songwriter Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon (2025), Hawke has the ability to make each role distinct from one another, yet distinctly his own. He continues that streak in the thriller The Weight (2026). Once again, we see Hawke in the shoes of a character and making us believe he’s been wearing them his entire life.

This time, his approach is one of brooding, laser focused determination. Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a single father to his young daughter Penny (Avy Berry). We find Samuel and Penny in Oregon during the height of The Great Depression. The script (Matthew Booi, Shelby Gaines, Matthew Chapman) provides details without directly explaining things. We learn that Samuel is a war veteran who worked on planes while in the service. It’s implied that he turned this skillset toward being a car mechanic after returning from WWI. Little is given about what happened to Penny’s mother, although we can deduce it wasn’t good. Despite being smart, resourceful, and attentive to his daughter, The Great Depression has left Samuel in dire straits. Early on, we see Samuel and Penny getting evicted from their apartment. 

The narrative truly jumpstarts when – after an unfortunate misunderstanding with police officers – Samuel gets thrown into prison and transferred into a labor camp. The camp is run by the crooked Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe). Clancy is a tough son of a gun but is willing to make some concessions if he can gain something out of it. Such an opportunity arises when – after Samuel gets into Clancy’s good graces – Clancy offers him a job that could grant him early release. Samuel, along with three men of his choosing, are tasked with carrying a shipment of gold bars across one hundred miles of Oregon wilderness. The gold has been marked for government retrieval from FDR, but Clancy and his associates want to keep it for themselves. The mission is simple: if Samuel and his men successfully get the gold to their target destination, Clancy will sign the papers guaranteeing their freedom. If anything were to go wrong (such as one gold bar gone missing), the men will be killed.  

In terms of its premise, The Weight feels like a mix of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), in which loyalties are tested in the presence of a fortune, and The Wages of Fear (1953) in how strangers are brought together to perform a dangerous journey. The Weight doesn’t reach the heights of those two classic films, but it incorporates the same kind of gritty, desperate personality. This is a throwback story in which the main attraction is finding out which of these people will hold fast under pressure and which will fall apart at the seams. Director Padraic McKinley styles the narrative like a coiled spring ready to pop. This is a survival test where the dangers aren’t just from the harsh elements, but – to a larger degree – the very people within this crew. Joining Samuel on the trip are the men he chose: Rankin (Austin Amelio), Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), and Singh (Avi Nash). Clancy’s associates Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Letender (George Burgess) join to keep a watchful eye over them. We also get the presence of Anna (Julia Jones) a Native American woman whose inclusion feels like a narrative twist to add yet another layer of tension.

McKinely’s direction, along with the cinematography (Matteo Cocco), editing (McKinley, Matthew Woolley) and production design (Cora Pratz) construct this world as wet and grimy. From Samuel’s greasy, slicked hair, the thick misty air, to the denseness of the Oregon wilderness, the visual aesthetic never allows the characters to feel comfortable. At night, the surroundings are covered in near blackness, creating a ghostly atmosphere. The light of the campfires reflects off characters’ faces, amplifying the sense of isolation. The mood and pacing are slow and deliberate, interrupted with sudden bursts of intense violence. In the middle of all this is Samuel. His arc from being arrested, getting sent to prison camp, and going on this perilous adventure is underlined with one singular motivation: getting back to Penny. It’s as though his actions are stripped down to the bare necessities – each moment a step closer to his goal.  

The Weight is structured with several memorable moments. Some of them show off Samuel’s intellect and adaptability, such as the sequence where he and other prisoners move a boulder off the road to the surprise and delight of Clancy. Other times, set pieces are sheer terrifying, such as when Samuel gets stuck in a river as dozens of logs float above him. Seeing Ethan Hawke actually in the water with the logs above his head is easily the most suspenseful passage of the entire movie. However, there are points where the narrative takes some bizarre turns. The worst scene is, without question, when the group stumbles upon an old rope bridge. The weight of each individual along with the weight of the gold is too much for the bridge to handle. The solution to this problem is maybe the dumbest idea one could think of. With Samuel standing in the middle of the bridge, the group decides to toss the gold bars, one by one, across to the other side. This idea is mind numbingly ridiculous. For a movie that is so grounded and serious, this sequence sits badly out of place.

Despite one truly forgettable scene, The Weight works almost from beginning to end. This is a crime thriller that is rooted in character, performance, and story – ending with a confrontation where the actors really get to flex their talents. You can tell a film is working at a high level when a mere conversation is just as riveting as any shootout, car chase, or big explosion. That’s when you know – as an audience member – you are in good hands.   

Austin Amelio, Avi Nash, Avy Berry, Blue Moon, Cora Pratz, Ethan Hawke, Featured, First Reformed, George Burgess, Julia Jones, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Matteo Cocco, Matthew Booi, Matthew Chapman, Matthew Woolley, Padraic McKinley, Russell Crowe, Sam Hazeldine, Shelby Gaines, The Before Trilogy, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Wages of Fear, The Weight, Training Day