THE WEIGHT

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE END

Film Review by FIORE

As a thriller, THE WEIGHT is a film that builds to a tremendous crescendo, only to fall flat in the final stanzas.  When writing a screen play, it is essential to know the ending.  When the ending is known, all the rest of the script’s elements steer toward that conclusion.  When Christopher Rennier penned THE WEIGHT, he either had no concept how to end it or he and Director Thomas Rennier simply ran out of money and could not shoot it.  The climax of THE WEIGHT is so nonsensical, it renders all preceding conflict moot.  That’s a shame, because until the ending, the film is rather creative.

The movie opens with a stranger who collapses into a hotel, dying from a gunshot wound. Using a timeline shift similar to Quentin Tarrentino’s PULP FICTION, the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and the characters involved are unveiled. 

Staring in THE WEIGHT are Clayne Crawford, who currently plays Martin Riggs on the TV series LETHAL WEAPON, Robert Leeshock, MJ Bracken, Heather Roop and Ken Hudson Campbell.

As with many Independent films, there are a few problems in the initial storytelling.  A scene where two women are captured, and then thrown in the back seat of a car while the kidnapper drives is illogical.  Even women should be able to escape this type of encounter.  And there are jump cuts during the road traveling scene.  Jump cuts are not cool, or Bohemian.  They are simply poor, lazy editing.

These foibles aside, THE WEIGHT unravels an interesting tale, until the ending.  There are so many loose ends, it’s like a bag of string cheese.  Potential, never realized.  THE WEIGHT is currently available on VOD.