Ethan Hawke leads a tense, Depression-era thriller in ‘The Weight’

Ethan Hawke (left) and Austin Amelio in a scene from “The Weight” (Vertical) [AP Photo]

In April 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order banning the hoarding of gold and requiring Americans to deliver excess quantities to a Federal Reserve Bank by May. The policy sets the stage for a heist in the tense and earthy thriller “The Weight,” in which work camp prisoners are assembled for a dangerous, off-the-books gold smuggling job, with Ethan Hawke leading the charge.

Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a single father to a young daughter, Penny (Avy Berry), struggling to make ends meet four years into the Great Depression. Murphy is smart, capable and honest, which does not necessarily benefit him in these greedy and violent times. They return from church one day to find they’ve been evicted. On the search for a new apartment, some toughs give them a hard time. But self-defense excuses only go so far when the agitator you’ve punched is a police officer. Soon, Murphy is shipped off to a work camp. If he’s not out in time, Penny will become a ward of the state.

With a raspy voice and a world-weary look, Murphy tries to keep to himself. But he distinguishes himself as a resourceful problem solver, and the warden, Clancy (Russell Crowe), takes notice. Clancy isn’t your run-of-the-mill sadistic, mustache-twirling kind of warden. He can seem even a little likable at times. But he’s also the one with all the power: It’s hard to know if he can be trusted. Still, when Clancy promises that if Murphy pulls off the gold job, he’ll sign papers to free him to reunite with Penny, Murphy decides it’s a bet worth taking.

So Murphy puts together a team of fellow prisoners: Singh (Avi Nash), Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen) and Rankin (Austin Amelio) to transport heavy gold bars through the wet Oregon wilderness (played by Bavaria). There are also a few deeply suspicious and ornery guys working for those planning the operation, and a Native American woman, Anna (Julia Jones), who joins the trek. It’s a big group trying to stay under the radar on this white-knuckle journey, in which they have to cross a broken rope bridge with the heavy gold (it involves a very stressful tossing and catching scheme) and ford a river to cover their tracks. No one is sure they can trust anyone. And then there’s the wild card terror of the giggly lone vagrant looking for something to eat and wondering what exactly is in all those heavy-looking bags.

Hawke feels natural in this environment, clad in denim workwear that also looks like something your average Brooklynite dad would wear. And he’s believable as the guy whose brain gets him out of more scrapes than his brawn.

“The Weight” comes from director Padraic McKinley and writers Matthew Chapman, Matthew Booi and Shelby Gaines, who keep the momentum going at a rousing and confident clip.

It is very much a “dad movie,” which isn’t, in this case, a bad or even limiting thing. More than a few people have compared it to something Clint Eastwood might have done at some point — just a solid, hearty, meat-and-potatoes kind of movie.[Abridged]

LINDSEY BAHR, MDT/AP Film Writer

“The Weight,” a Vertical release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language and some violence and bloody images.” Running time: 115 minutes. ★★★★