ReelBob: ‘Let Him Go’ ★★★
By Bob Bloom
The meaning of family is at the center of the dark and disturbing thriller, “Let Him Go.”
The movie, written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, from a novel by Larry Watson, is a modern-day Western, a showdown between good and evil.
George and Margaret Blackledge are a Montana ranch family living under the pall of tragedy. Their son, who — along with his young wife and infant son — also lived on the ranch. The son was later killed in a horse-riding accident.
Even before the accident Margaret doted on her grandson, continually taking over the duties of Lorna, the baby’s mother, whose smoldering resentment is obvious to the audience but not to Margaret.
A few years pass, and the lonely Lorna remarries a young man named Donnie Weboy. Shortly after the wedding, the couple move from the Blackledge ranch, which upsets Margaret.
She secretly drives into town to see her grandson and watches as, on a walk, Donnie hits both the boy, Jimmy, and his mother.
She is very upset but keeps silent, not even telling her husband.
A few days later, the new family moves away. Margaret learns that they have returned to Donnie’s family in one of the Dakotas.
Without telling George, Margaret begins to pack, having decided that she is going to look for Lorna and Jimmy and, if possible, bring them back to the ranch where she believes they belong.
As portrayed by Diane Lane, Margaret is a loving, determined and obstinate woman; she is ruled by emotion and instinct, and her gut tells her that the two people she still considers family may not be safe.
George (Kevin Costner), a former sheriff, is, like Margaret, soft-spoken and taciturn.
The chemistry between Lane and Costner, who played husband-and-wife Martha and Jonathan Kent in “Man of Steel,” is natural and believable.
They bring an emotional history to George and Margaret that you understand without having to be told. You can see it in a glance or a touch.
Despite misgivings, George drives with Margaret to the Dakotas ostensibly to check up and visit their grandson.
They finally wind up in rural North Dakota, where they begin hearing disturbing things about the Weboy family. A sense of foreboding and air of menace hang over the movie. The odor of disaster and tragedy is very palatable.
When the Blackledges finally meet the Weboys, headed by matriarch Blanche (Lesley Manville), it’s a study in contrasts. The Blackledges are polite and quiet, while the Weboys are boisterous, unnerving and intimidating.
If you are a fan of John Ford movies, the Weboys are the cinematic descendants of the Clantons from “My Darling Clementine” and the Cleggs from “Wagon Master.”
They are a perverted example of true family, where brutality and fear substitute for love and understanding.
Tension builds for the first three-quarters of this 114-minute movie. But it cannot be sustained; the final act basically goes against everything we have learned and know about George and Margaret. It’s as if Bezucha ran out of ideas and simply fell back on the simplest solution — a fiery finale that fails to conform to the emotional texture of what came beforehand.
And that is too bad because up to that point, “Let Him Go” was heading for some sort of emotional confrontation between Lane’s Margaret and Manville’s Blanche.
Instead, we get a solution that turns Lane and Manville into cardboard caricatures whom we have seen before.
Up to this point, the performances by Lane, Costner and Manville were solid and engrossing. Manville’s smiling and immoral Blanche, in her own twisted way, believes in the concept of family just as much as Lane and Costner.
“Let Him Go” is a taut feature with sympathetic protagonists and a family of villains who, despite being almost cartoonish, emit an air of malevolence that cannot be ignored.
Despite the weak finale, it is a solid movie worth viewing. It may also make you hold your loved ones closer and tighter.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.
LET HIM GO
3 stars out of 4
(R), graphic violence, language, disturbing images