Hawke Drives a Gritty Wilderness Gold Heist

Padraic McKinley’s debut The Weight follows Ethan Hawke as a Depression-era prisoner forced to shepherd a team of fellow inmates on a perilous gold-haul across Oregon’s mountains, with Russell Crowe as the warden. While the movie delivers adrenaline-drenched set pieces and Hawke’s commanding performance helps keep the ride engaging, the screenplay leans on blunt racial optics and narrative devices, making it a largely thrilling but uneven wilderness thriller.