Forest Whitaker in ‘Burden’. Photo by 101 Studios.
Written and Directed by: Andrew Heckler
Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson, Tess Harper, Usher Raymond IV
Deeply personal, intimate narratives have the power to tell a story that, often, connects with an audience. Whether through a character, a relationship, an actor’s performance, the story itself or the technical side of filmmaking, the intimacy allows a film to build trust with an audience; a genuineness that isn’t very easily replicated, even in real life.
“Burden,” based on the true story of Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund, “Tron: Legacy”), is the kind of story that should fit the description above. There is a genuineness in the performances; there’s a trust that first time writer-director Andrew Heckler brings to the screen in his direction.
An orphan raised by the Ku Klux Klan, Mike comes across the screen as dimwitted. Yet, behind the sway and the drawl, the actor’s calculating eyes betray a more noble purpose. Hedlund’s quiet personality doesn’t boast, even when his temper breaks. He knows that there is a moral ambiguity behind his actions.
This makes it a bit easier when Judy (Andrea Riseborough) enters his life. When we first meet her, she is in the middle of a break-up with another low life parked on her couch. Mike, who is there to repossess her TV, witnesses her just go all-out on the low life boyfriend who left her kid without a TV. Riseborough gives the impression that she’s not going to put up with anything that stands in the way of she and her son. And although the sparks don’t immediately come, there is some affection between Mike and Judy.
The story gets this connection out of the way, perhaps just a bit too quickly, or even too easily.
Despite that, the connection between the two works in the film’s favor, in that it eases the underlying tensions between the Reverend David Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) and the leader of the Klan, Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson), who just happens to be Mike’s adopted father.
The Klan has purchased an abandoned movie theater and turned it into a Klan museum for all to see. The theater, which has an interesting and humorous involvement in the story, is a beacon. As a focal point, it draws each of the opposing sides in. It also creates a unique barrier, for which Mike alone holds the key, so it creates some space with which Heckler can work with the characters and the brewing situation.
It also creates a vacuum in which the relationship between Judy and Mike takes a bit more center stage than the story could support. The narrative works because the characters are real, visceral if you will. As Mike makes the conscious decision to break from the Klan to pursue a life with Judy, the Klan acts, putting pressure and strain on not only their relationship, but with the Reverend and his family.
All throughout the story though is a timely examination of race relations and the importance behind the social acceptance of one another, as humans first. This is where Heckler got his adaptation of Mike Burden’s real story right. The right blend of humor and action makes that portion of this journey, the acceptance of a more noble cause and the actions that go with that, worthwhile.
The film’s burden, if you’ll pardon the expression, is carrying the rest of the story, Mike’s story. And though Hedlund’s performance is exceptionally strong, the story couldn’t carry the weight of that part of his journey. As the credits roll and we see the photos of the rea- life people this story represents, you appreciate their struggles because the performances are so strong.
“Burden” struggles to find light underneath the power of change. For a moment, it succeeds only to remind us that, many years later, we are still struggling to be the change.
2.5 out of 4
