Father and son reunion is filled with complications
Briskly told Hammer is a tantalizing tale about double-crossing, deception and Dad
Roger Ebert once said that no good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough. But it’s also something of a self-fulfilling rule. When does the otherwise good movie tip the scales and overstay its welcome?
Certainly it’s not in the case of Hammer, which runs a brisk 82 minutes from stem to stern.
We open on Chris (Mark O’brien) traversing a lonely U.s.-canada border crossing. Shortly thereafter, he meets old buddy Adams (Ben Cotton) and we realize Chris is involved in smuggling drugs.
What happens next? Let’s just say that people don’t use the phrase “drug deal that went right” very often. Chris and Adams are parted from their contraband payments and each other, shots are fired, and Adams’s girlfriend (Dayle Mcleod) winds up injured. Chris hightails away on a motorcycle.
Three people, drugs, money and a firearm are more than enough pieces to construct a decent story of double-crossing and deception, but writer-director Christian Sparkes (who dedicates the film to his dad), adds one more compelling item — Chris’s dad, played by veteran character actor Will Patton.
We never learn much about the old man, but the few clues the movie doles out prove to be tantalizing.
For instance, if a parent learns their adult child has hidden stolen money and an injured body in a farmer’s field along a stretch of country road, disappointment and anger are to be expected. But what kind of father instantly sizes up the situation — Chris isn’t sure where in the long, featureless field he needs to go — and snaps: “You didn’t leave a marker?”
I wanted to know more about Dad’s backstory. But then again, maybe I didn’t. Maybe that would have taken me past 90 minutes and into checkingmy-watch territory. Instead, the film rattles along as Chris tries to find the money he needs to pay Adams, which involves a great bit of grift in a pawnshop.
Sparkes, who hails from Newfoundland, shot Hammer in Sault Ste. Marie with a Pan-canadian cast — Patton is the odd man out here — and their accents give this film a very homegrown feel. It also feels very homey — in addition to the thriller aspects, there’s an undercurrent of family tension, with discussions about an older relative recently committed to long-term care, and Chris’s own troubled past, which led to a rupture from which the rest of the family clearly never recovered.
The script doesn’t overplay these elements. They’re just there, reminding us that every family has baggage. It’s just that in this case it happens to include two satchels stuffed full of cash. I’d say more, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome either.