Let Him Go

This was like watching Father Knows Best (salty version) meets MA Barker and her boys! It was a good story that moved along well with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains of the west. There was pathos and you connected with the characters. I like watching a movie geared towards 50+ year olds! Make more.

Let Him Go is a western-gothic crime thriller with a North Western setting and some resemblance to vintage oaters like The Searchers. The search has elemental film roots with mental and physical violence enhanced by Leslie Manville as a bad grandma and her wicked sons.

It's fun to see the bad guys get roughed up. It's also satisfying to see the searching-for-family motif of contemporary super-hero films played out in the Western plains even if it was filmed in Calgary. The craggy mountains and little towns complement the late fifties setting when love and crime occur in simple but stark ways.

Retired Montana Sheriff George (Kevin Costner) and his wife, Margaret (Diane Lane), search for their grandson, Jimmy (Bram Hornung and Otto Hornung) after the death of their son, James (Ryan Bruce). Former daughter in law Lorna (Kavli Carter) has left abruptly with new husband, Donny Weboy (Will Britain), and grandson, relocating under duress to North Dakota and his family- Weboy territory where matriarch Blanche (Manville) wields absolute power. Very bad move. The chase begins.

Lane and Costner are in top-aging form, tough and tenderhearted enough to fight the Weboy clan for the grandson. This is a different, more nuanced role for them when they were Superman's parents. Let Him Go adds an authenticity to the thriller formula by emphasizing the devotion of the loving couple to each other and their quest to keep the family whole, or at least provide a fitting family life for their grandson.

The usual Western tropes apply like the corrupt sheriff, bad grandma and sons, the kind stranger, the tough mother, and the epic ending battle. What goes beyond the formula is the sincere love propelling the plot and corralling our hearts. And, of course, the fully-seasoned Lane and Costner.

Let Him Go is much more than the genre it represents.

This story is dark in many ways, but at the heart of it are two grieving grandparents (badass grandparents though) who want to save their toddler grandson from terrible criminals. Complex and thoughtful, it's the perfect mix of drama and suspense. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are amazing. This is a finely drawn drama with high stakes tension.

Great casting, cinematography, sets and location, but novice writer and director Thomas Bezucha made this one a very unnecessarily slow burner. The 113 runtime was way too long for this story, and felt twice as long with the slow pacing, long dragged out scenes and unnecessary still shots. If you watched this at 1.2x speed, it'd be bearable. The screenplay needed a good 20-30 mins edited/cut out. The sound/score could've also been better. Not sure if it was Costner's character, or he was bored during filming, because this wasn't one of his finest performances - by a long shot. Never mind all the bogus 9's and 10's, this is an honest and very generous 6/10 from me.

This new Western blends elements of noir, drama, and suspense to create a generally searing character study. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of a retired sheriff (Kevin Costner) and his wife (Diane Lane.) Their young grandson has been spending time with his stepfather, whom they view as suspicious and is married to their son's widow. The leading couple leaves from Montana to the Dakotas to visit their step-family and try to get their grandson back, but things go south very quickly. The performances are generally powerful all around. Costner and Lane give clear emotional depth as well as a real sense of genuineness and urgency while in character. They feel haunted with grief from the death of their son, yet also proactively driven by a strong desire to ensure their grandson is properly treated. The film's cinematography of the Great Plains is gorgeous (although it was actually filmed in Alberta, Canada,) and the score is also quietly powerful.

In the second half of the film, the dramatic tension is gradually increased both through the slow-burn tone as well as the dialogue. The film's gritty and slow-burn style may remind viewers of thrillers written and/or directed by Taylor Sheridan. Without going into any detail, suffice it to say that characters' instincts may be brought to a boiling point. However, the sudden and occasionally uneven increases in dramatic tension as well as violence do not always feel conducive to the film's tone. As a result, the film doesn't quite comment as starkly on its characters' behaviors or the nature of violence as thoughtfully as it intends to. The motivations of the characters are also rather predictable, and outside of Costner and Lane's characters, I did not find the rest of them to be especially engaging. Even though the characters are well-developed, the roles they play in creating some of the story's suspense are not inherently unique. That said, this is still a well-acted and well-shot thriller that should please patient viewers that know what they're in for. 7/10