The Weight premiered at Sundance this year and is now in theaters. It is being sold on the fact that it stars Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe. Hawke plays the main character, but Crowe is more of a side character. Important for the plot, but doesn’t take up much screentime, similar to Bryan Cranston’s role in Godzilla (2014). Still, audiences are probably not going to mind that too much, given the fact that Ethan Hawke’s performance is so captivating. He loses himself in the character of Samuel Murphy, which is written well but definitely elevated by Hawke’s performance.
But there are many more than two performances in The Weight, and the whole cast is compelling. While most of the characters fall into archetypes, the performances are so great that they feel less stale and more familiar. Credit is due to, of many others, director Padraic McKinely, who is mostly known for directing about a dozen episodes of television. Of particular note is Julia Jones, playing a Native American woman named Anna, and Avi Nash, playing a South Asian man named Singh. (Shout-out to people with that name, especially as a middle name). While this is mostly a story about White men, both from the protagonists’ and antagonists’ point-of-view, these two characters provide an important contrast in perspectives while never being reduced to caricature.
