“Hammer” (**1/2 out of four) was an earnest but limited melodrama about a father (Will Patton) who finds himself in the midst of a personal crisis when he finds his estranged son (Mark O’Brien) running from a botched drug deal and has to decide whether to help him and repair their relationship or to leave him to the wolves and to dying. Neither as powerful nor as compelling as it could have been, as story never shifts into high gear, but still holds you in its firm grip thanks to solid performances and writer/director Christian Sparkes’ involving storytelling. Similar story told with more grit and fire in 1986’s “At Close Range.”