While most people think of Daniel Radcliffe and automatically associate the actor with Harry Potter, the reality is that the actor has had an extensive career beyond the Boy Who Lived. He’s had a successful stage career, appearing on Broadway in productions such as Equus, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Merrily We Roll Along, and more. He’s also had an impressive film career as well, starring in films like Swiss Army Man, The Lost City, and even played “Weird Al” Yankovic in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. However, there’s one movie in Radcliffe’s filmography that just hit free streaming that most people have forgotten about and happens to be his lowest rated project to date.
Now streaming on Tubi, 2018’s Beast of Burden is a crime thriller that stars Radcliffe along with Grace Gummer, Robert Wisdom, and Pablo Schreiber. The film follows ex-Air Force pilot Sean Haggerty (Radcliffe) who transports illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. On his final run, however, Sean finds himself torn between the deal he made with the DEA and the cartel when his wife gets caught in the middle.
Radcliffe’s Beast of Burden Role is Nothing Like Harry Potter
If there’s one thing that you can definitively take away from Beast of Burden, it’s that Radcliffe has done an excellent job of moving away from the iconic role of Harry Potter in that franchise of films. Every role the actor has taken beyond the Wizarding World has been a major departure, but Beast of Burden really makes that clear. His performance as Sean is solid, with the actor doing a good job of delivering on the complicated emotions his character endures as he not only tries to save his marriage and get through this final drug run, but also the unexpected challenge thrown his way by the cartel. As we find out more about Sean and what led him to this moment, Radcliffe does a very good job of portraying a man who has figuratively been kicked while he’s down and is struggling with feeling like a failure.
Unfortunately, while Radcliffe’s performance in Beast of Burden is phenomenal, the rest of the movie doesn’t quite live up. Critics ravaged the movie for having a substandard script and poor narrative structure, noting that the twists are a bit too far-fetched and the concept of the film runs thin way too quickly. It presently sits at a dismal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes in terms of its critical rating and fared even worse with audiences, who presently have it sitting at 11%. That said, while Beast of Burden didn’t win any awards and is far from a high point in Radcliffe’s career, the film is still worth watching for his performance. The film is a solid reminder that Radcliffe is far more than his child star turn in one of the most popular film franchises of all time. Catch it for free on Tubi this month.
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