Mark Reviews Movies: HAMMER (2020)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 4, 2020

The father could have ignored his son. He could have pretended not to see him or gone home to tell his wife that he randomly saw their elder child. They haven't seen him since the son left home and went off to do whatever estranged adult children do. In Hammer, though, Stephen (Will Patton) sees Chris (Mark O'Brien) speeding through town on a motorcycle, and instead of dismissing the chance encounter, the father decides to follow his son.

It's that decision—so simple yet so defining—that begins writer/director Christian Sparkes' film, a relatively simple thriller that works because it defines its characters and their relationships so clearly. It mainly does so through these characters' actions—what we see them do and what we learn they have done. That's always what matters most when it comes to defining the true nature of a person.

At the start, Chris does some shady business, involving a couple of duffel bags filled with cash, in the woods with his old friend Adams (Ben Cotton). The group is ambushed, and Adams quickly pieces together that his girlfriend Lori (Dayle McLeod) and Chris have double-crossed him. Chris and a shot Lori escape with the cash.

Meanwhile, Stephen is doing errands in town when he spots Chris, now alone on the bike. After his father catches up to him, Chris grudgingly explains that he's in some trouble. He doesn't want his father to get involved, but Stephen insists. Even as the full extent and danger of the situation becomes apparent, the father keeps insisting.

In terms of plot, the rest of Sparkes' screenplay features the two men trying to find the money, which Chris left in the middle of a cornfield (along with a wounded or dead Lori), in order to save Chris' younger brother Jeremy (Connor Price), whom Adams has taken as a hostage. It's easy to appreciate how grounded Sparkes' suspense scenarios are, how each new development follows logically from the previous ones, and how the peril to these men's lives and consciences mount with dreadful momentum.

The characters and performances—especially Patton's, as a father who constantly has to decide between common sense and re-connecting with his son—obviously matter more to Sparkes, though. Despite how messy the plot may make things for these characters, the story of Hammer is driven by wounded but hopeful heart.

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