Let Him Go Review: A Harrowing Family Story Fueled By Costner And Lane

Release date: November 6, 2020
Running time: 114 minutes
Starring: Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Lesley Manville, Jeffrey Donovan, Kayli Carter, Booboo Stewart, Will Brittain
Director/Writer: Thomas Bezucha, based on the novel “Let Him Go” by Larry Watson
Producers: Paul Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan

Following the loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) 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 (Manville). When they discover that the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.

The main stars of this film are Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, two iconic actors that are good in pretty much everything they have done.  The pair play the main characters in Let Him Go and are the focus of much of the screen time.  And thankfully, the pair have a very good dynamic on screen.  In the film they play an old couple that have been together forever and Lane and Costner portray this perfectly.  And they do approximation of a relationship between themselves.  They are old and have some quirks of old people, but they are comfortable in their old relationship.  And that is partly due to the great writing.  The dialog between Lane and Costner, and between all the characters, feels natural and fits with the time period.  Let Him Go is just good all around from a character standpoint.  The characters in this world feel fully fleshed out and have quirks and personalities that come through on the big screen.  

The story of this film takes a long time to develop but it is worth it.  The film does a good job of telling a story set in this time period.  Everything just feels right, from the clothing, to the cars, to the sense southern and midwest hospitality, with the outward warmth but inward steel.  And although the film takes a long time to develop, the film has a good sense of foreboding.  You can tell that something terrible will happen early on so you have an internal sense of dread as the movie develops.  And when that does happen, the film does have some visceral, extreme violence.  And although this sense of foreboding is implied at the start, the story does go off the rails towards the end of it.  The film has a more exiting final third than I expected from the build up, and did feel a little too extreme in that respect, but the overall build up was so good that I didn't mind it.    

Let Him Go has fantastic characters and a slow burning story, fueled by the natural chemistry between Costner and Lane, in this harrowing tale of family and fear.

Watch it.

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Let Him Go will be available in theaters on November 6, 2020.