MOVIE REVIEW
“LET HIM GO”
Rated R. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square and suburban theaters.
Grade: C+
Beginning with a drearily predictable series of events, the 1950s-era Western “Let Him Go” misuses the talents of some major league players, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Leslie Manville and Amesbury’s own Jeffrey Donovan among them, on a by-the-numbers tale of family violence and revenge in Big Sky, U.S.A.
After the death of her husband James Blackledge (Ryan Bruce) some time in the late ’50s, his young widow Lorna Blackledge (Kayli Carter) up and marries for reasons never made clear the abusive, unattractive, good-for-nothing Donnie Weboy (Will Britain), taking her and James’ 3-year-old son Jimmy, the elder Blackledges’ only grandchild, with her, much to the dismay of grandmother Margaret Blackledge (Lane) and ex-lawman husband George Blackledge (Costner). Before you know it, Lorna and Donnie pack up and take Jimmy from Montana to North Dakota, where they will live within the comforting arms (I’m kidding) of the wild Weboy clan, headed by the Ma Barker-esque Blanche Weboy (Manville in a swirly, white coiffure) and her feral “boys.”
On the way to the Weboys from Montana in their Chevy wagon, George’s service revolver stowed away, the Blackledges run into young Native-American Peter (Booboo Stewart), riding a stallion he says just showed up one day. This gives Margaret the opportunity to show off her riding skills and for her and George to remember her late mare Strawberry and the day they had to put her down when James was a boy. We just know the Blackledges are going to get Peter into some kind of trouble.
Adapted and directed by Thomas Bezucha of the 2011 Selena Gomez vehicle “Monte Carlo” and based on a 2013 novel by Bismark’s own Larry Watson, “Let Him Go” is a Cormac McCarthy-type violent drama set in a modern-day version of the Old Wild West. Like the recent new version of Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” the best thing about “Let Him Go” is the scenery (the film was shot in Alberta, Canada), and the languid ease with which Manville turns on the baleful voice and gaze, not to mention the Dakota accent.
Blanche’s “Little House on the Prairie” is full of tomahawk-wielding lunatics. Donovan turns the leering Billy Weboy into a scary wannabe rapist. Costner, who once teamed with Lane as Superman’s adoptive parents, has played the vengeful gunslinger before, and he knows the ropes better than almost anybody. Lane is tasked with the worst of the dialogue, mostly saccharine grandma memories. It’s hard not to blame pig-tailed, pig-headed Margaret for what happens.
In one scene, blowing cigarette smoke over her pork chops, Blanche rattles off what fates awaited her forebears in this hardscrabble country — some were frozen, crippled or drowned. A few “lit out.” Several others were probably set on fire by Blanche, we reckon. George has a reputation in this territory we are told, which is perhaps why a local sheriff offers George and Margaret a sleepover in his cells. Sweet dreams.
It’s easy to imagine John Wayne or Liam Neeson playing George. But as good as Costner is, he cannot make “Let Him Go” more than what it is, formulaic and second-rate.
(“Let Him Go” contains extreme violence and a painfully predictable plot.)
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‘Let Him Go’ Western fails to rustle up original spin on revenge saga - Boston Herald
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