News

With Let Him Go now playing in theaters, I recently had the opportunity to talk with writer-director Thomas Bezucha about making the fiery thriller. Based on the novel of the same name by Larry Watson, Let Him Go follows a retired sheriff named George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) who set out to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are …...

With writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go now playing in theaters, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Diane Lane about her work in the fiery thriller. Based on the novel of the same name by Larry Watson, Let Him Go follows a retired sheriff named George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) who set out to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, …...

Update Sunday Am: Focus Features is calling Let Him Go‘s opening weekend at $4.1M after a Saturday that was up 6% over Friday with $1.56M. Sunday is being figured at $1.07M.

Talking about how the specialty label released an older adult skewing (66% over 35) feature in the pandemic marketplace, leaning toward women 52%; demos which have been seen as reluctant to head back to the cinema, Focus Distribution Boss Lisa Bunnell tells Deadline this morning, “There are moviegoers who want to go back to theaters. If you don’t offer them a film, if you don’t give people the opportunity to see a movie, you’ll never know if they’ll go back or not.” Bunnell also adds, “We’re just trying to keep theaters going.”

In an earlier note sent out to press, Bunnell beamed about the specialty label’s B.O. notch of having two movies open back-to-back at the weekend B.

Focus Features’ Let Him Go rode to No. 1 in its domestic debut with $4.1 million from 2,454 locations, the top gross in six weeks amid the challenges posed by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The movie’s performance also marks the first time in the history of Focus that the specialty label has had two titles open at N0. 1 on back-to-back weekends, and is a reflection of the lack of bigger studio fare.

Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone) and based on Larry Watson’s bestselling novel of the same name, the suspense-filled drama reunites Kevin Costner ...

Focus Features’ Let Him Go rode to No. 1 in its domestic debut with $4.1 million from 2,454 locations, the top gross in six weeks amid the challenges posed by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The movie’s performance also marks the first time in the history of Focus that the specialty label has had two titles open at N0. 1 on back-to-back weekends, and is a reflection of the lack of bigger studio fare.

Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone) and based on Larry Watson’s bestselling novel of the same name, the suspense-filled drama reunites Kevin Costner ...

Losing a child is a nightmare for any parent that only festers further with the passage of time. In Let Him Go, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane portray George and Margaret Blackledge. They’re a Montana-based couple living on a beautiful stretch of farmland.

Costner’s George is a retired sheriff whose antenna for nefarious folks doing despicable things is impeccable.

Sadly, both George and Margaret experience that family tragedy that no parent ever recovers from when their grown son, James Blackledge (Ryan Bruce), falls off his horse and perishes. That leaves his widow, Lorna (Kayli Carter from Mrs. America), to raise their son without his father.

After the film’s fateful beginnings, the ‘50s-set sizzler leaps ahead a few years. George and Margaret are providing a home for their daughter-in-law and their grandson Jimmy (played by both Otto Hornung and Bram Hornung).

When it comes to the title of the movie,...

With writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go opening this weekend, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Lesley Manville about her work in the fiery thriller. Based on the novel of the same name by Larry Watson, Let Him Go follows a retired sheriff named George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) who set out to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Manville). When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George …...

Rival grandmothers fight for the custody of their grandson in a slow-burn, neo-western thriller. Let Him Go builds simmering tension until an explosion of graphic violence. The film takes the time to establish serious character depth before throwing its leads off the deep end. The pacing gets a bit sluggish, but revs up for the brutal climax. The period setting's desolate landscapes add to the foreboding narrative.

Let Him Go opens at a ranch in early sixties Montana. George Blackledge (Kevin Costner), a retired sheriff, and his wife, Margaret (Diane Lane), watch as their son (Ryan Bruce) rides a new horse to a local trail. The horse returns, but he does not. George and Margaret are left caring for his widow, Lorna (Kayli Carter), and their infant grandson.

Three years later, Lorna marries the arrogant and disrespectful Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain). Margaret dislikes him immensely, but the reserved George wants to give him a chance.

This weekend, Focus Features will bring to theaters the feature adaptation of Let Him Go starring Oscar winner Kevin Costner and Oscar nominee Diane Lane.

Directed and written by Thomas Bezucha, the suspense thriller is based on Larry Watson’s popular 2013 novel of the same name. The story follows retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) after they lose their son. They leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.

Pete Hammond said in his Deadline review: “The deliberately paced film works on several levels as a portrait of a comfortable but loving marriage marred by a seismic event,...

Diane Lane (left) stars as “Margaret Blackledge” and Kevin Costner (right) stars as “George Blackledge” in director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go, a Focus Features release. Photo Credit : Kimberley French / Focus Features

Let Him Go is a Western set in early ’60s Montana, starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane in a heroic fight, not to save a town as in a classic Western, but to rescue their grandchild. When their son James (Ryan Bruce) dies suddenly, he leaves a hole in the hearts of his parents George (Costner) and Margaret (Lane) Blackledge, as well as a young widow Lorna (Kayli Carter) and infant child named Jimmy. When their daughter-in-law remarries, things change, but then her abusive new husband, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), unexpectedly relocates his wife and stepson to join his family in his home state. There was no warning and the young couple left no address yet...

Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. A gothic, Dakotan rescue mission. A bit of loss, and a bit of crass, mean mugging from a helmut-haired Lesley Manville. Add a dash of violence, of course — it’s a pretty good recipe. And writer/director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go, an adaptation of novelist Larry Watson’s 2013 neo-Western, get the flavors right, at least. That marquee-name duo play Margaret and George Blackledge, a Montana couple whose adult son dies in a tragic accident. Their daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter) later gets stolen away,...

With writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go opening this weekend, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Kevin Costner about his work in the fiery thriller. Based on the novel of the same name by Larry Watson, Let Him Go follows a retired sheriff named George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) who set out to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville). When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George …...

At this very moment, Halloween decorations are coming down, shattered Jack-o-Lanterns are being swept up, and bounties of candy are being traded by the most discerning of Trick ‘r Treaters. Yes, All Hallows’ Eve is done and November is here.

Seasonally that means warm sweaters and warmer, fuzzier movies at the cinema (or streamer in 2020 parlance). Even though we are still nearly two months away from Christmas, a glance at the upcoming November releases reveal it’s already the season to be jolly. But there’s more than feel-good cheer. There are also horror movies, awards contenders, and comedies to look forward to, whether in a theater or from the comfort of your own home.

Let Him Go

November 6 in the U.S. (December 11 in the UK)

Did you walk away from Man of Steel wishing you could just get a film about Kevin Costner and Diane Lane dealing with...

One is immediately struck by the simplicity of Let Him Go. Following the untimely death of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) watch in horror as their daughter-in-law (Kayli Carter) marries into the Weboy Family, their grandson in tow. The Weboys are an unruly sort, holding power over all of those inside and outside of the law around the border of Montana and North Dakota. Big mean fish in a small pond. Unswayed by the violence sure to come their way, George and Margaret set out to rescue their family from certain doom.

Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha and based on the Larry Watson novel of the same name, this is storytelling that recalls westerns from decades long past. And how fitting to cast Costner in the lead role, an aging movie star who uniquely represents Hollywood’s past, present, and future.

Gone, Baby, Gone: Bezucha Returns with Poignant Crime Drama

For his first film in nearly a decade, director Thomas Bezucha returns with a spirited character-driven crime melodrama in Let Him Go, an adaptation of the 2013 novel by Larry Watson. A period piece set across the desolate rural plateaus of Montana and North Dakota in the early 1950s, it’s a departure from Bezucha’s previous efforts, wherein a successful indie debut segued into a pair of glossy Hollywood feel-good endeavors.

Not so much gritty as old-fashioned in the care taken to portray the aching grief which drives a retired married couple to hatch a desperate kidnapping of their grandson, a descent into anxiety and violence allows comparison to both the revisionist Westerns of Anthony Mann and a hybrid ‘women’s picture’ of the studio era.…...

If Zack Snyder’s superhero movies got one thing right — and that’s a big “if” — it’s that Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are the Platonic ideal of white, decent, midwestern parents. Bright actors on their own, these two stars transform into some kind of denim supernova whenever they’re hired to share the same galaxy; the patriotic energy of their combined screen presence is powerful enough to fuel a Ford commercial and make you want to call your parents “ma” and “pa” for a few weird days. But while Snyder recognized that Costner and Lane spark an old-fashioned vision of American values more potent than even Superman could express alone, the franchise-oriented “Man of Steel” couldn’t afford to consider that such a vision can only exist in hindsight.

Thomas Bezucha’s “Let Him Go” doesn’t have that problem. Adapted from the Larry Watson novel of the same name,...

“Let Him Go,” starring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as an aging rancher couple out to rescue their grandson from a clan of varmint in-laws, is set in Big Sky Country about 50 years ago, and it’s like a family-values, homespun-nostalgia version of “The Searchers” crossed with “Midsommar” on the range. If that sounds like an oddball of a movie, but one that’s going to keep you watching, it is. And Lane and Costner give it their all in a casual way that only pros this seasoned and gifted can. They turn the movie into an unlikely thing: a touchingly bone-weary romance steeped in vengeance.

At first, we think we’re watching a sensitive weeper-of-the-week about grief, loss, and time’s healing passage. Lane and Costner play Margaret and George Blackledge. He’s a retired lawman, with a badge and pistol in his drawer that look like they came...

Writer-director Thomas Bezucha clearly flourishes under a big sky: Returning to Montana for “Let Him Go,” he fulfills the promise of his acclaimed debut feature, 2000’s “Big Eden,” also shot in the Treasure State. But where his earlier film was a lovely romantic comedy about the power of community, this new film (based on the novel by Larry Watson) is a nail-biting thriller about a couple rescuing their young grandson from a terrible new family.

Between its taut script and some indelible performances, “Let Him Go” succeeds both as a low-key character study and as a breathlessly intense thriller about the clash between good (but not perfect) people and bad people, none of whom are to be trifled with.

Bezucha opens with some idyllic images right out of Norman Rockwell, and only subtly does an undercurrent of Edward Hopper become visible. Retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife...

Focus Features has released a new trailer for Let Him Go. This is a new western with a couple of A-listers leading the way in the form of Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. This makes for a Man of Steel reunion, as the two previously played Clark Kent's parents in Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman flick. But, as we can see from the trailer, this is going to be a markedly different experience, as we're in for a brutal, gritty ride.

The trailer opens up with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane's characters having a heated discussion about whether or not to intervene in a delicate family matter. There is a great deal of tension, as well as some upsetting imagery, right off the bat. The two then set off on a journey to try and help their grandson, who is now in the care of some dangerous people. Things get ugly...