Weight

A fly-on-the-wall documentary that sounds interesting but proves to be rather dull, filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr.'s Weight centers on the struggles of a married couple who hit a rough patch after opening a training gym for weightlifters. Paul and Rebecca Steinman start their South Brooklyn center with big ambitions, but soon find their business struggling when clients fail to show up in large enough numbers. Evicted from their apartment, the pair begin sleeping at the gym (and doing everything necessary to keep its doors open) while essentially living out of a couple of large boxes full of clothes and toiletries. For Paul, the hard times only get worse when he fails his own squats at the 2012 American Open weightlifting competition. But his coaching of students remains keeps him encouraged, and he organizes trials and teach-ins that boost morale even when he and Rebecca are at their lowest. The problem with Weight is that most of the footage here captures people in administrative mode—looking at charts or conferring about details or unloading deliveries—while most of the drama is internal, taking place within Paul and Rebecca's besieged mindset or the mental challenge of weightlifters trying to believe in themselves. Unfortunately, not much of the latter is captured by the camera, and watching students (who viewers never learn anything about) go through their forms is hardly exciting. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)