I’m going to be blunt, I went to see Let Him Go more to support my small local theatre ahead of another potential local lockdown than because I was particularly drawn to the movie itself. It didn’t have a very interesting marketing campaign, the conflict seemed unpromising, and the last movie I saw that partnered Kevin Costner with Diane Lane was Man of Steel -not a great precursor. The film is an adaptation of a Larry Watson novel directed by Thomas Bezucha, whose filmography mostly consists of films I’ve never heard of. It would have been barely on my radar, but for the one thing that did raise my eyebrow from the trailer: Lesley Manville, critical darling who almost never gets the popular credit she deserves, playing the seeming antagonist as a fanciful, homely but generously crass old family matriarch. That at least looked like the kind of performance that would be worth the ticket.
And quite honestly it is. Manville’s dangerous and intimidating turn as Blanche Weboy, a perversion of a classical country mother archetype is the showstopper of the film no question. Though the movie is just generally a good deal better than it looked, if still not terribly interesting or memorable. It is an exercise in turning traditional country values and decorum on its head if nothing else, and that is fascinating; the way it addresses social mores of family, and family joined through marriage most notably. One especially good scene is coloured by a simmering hostility and passive aggression as two families linked through a common grandchild keep up a pretense of respectability when meeting for the first time under disagreeable circumstances. Costner and Lane’s George and Margaret Blackledge have travelled from Montana to the North Dakota home of the Weboys, the family whose son married their daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter) after the tragic death of their own son, to see their grandchild Jimmy whom the Weboys had discreetly abducted from the Blackledges hometown to raise themselves. Margaret had already witnessed the Weboy son abusing Jimmy and his mother, and so she naturally has a foul opinion of this family that only deepens in the presence of their clearly dishonest cordiality.
This comes at about the midpoint of the film though, after a long first act of buildup in which the Weboys are mostly off-screen phantoms, known only by their family name and the ominousness that comes along with it, and the increasing danger they seem to present to Jimmy. This stuff is all effective too, Bezucha knows well enough how to build his tension and let it seethe, finding some of the sketchiest-looking spots in the American northwest to drop hints of the Weboys’ menace -their influence extends far beyond their homestead. The mood and dread is actually weirdly reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre of all things, though nowhere as depraved -a comparison that only becomes more resonant when it comes to the rural isolation of the Weboy home, the implicit violence beneath their mundane exterior, and the fact the Blackledges can’t seem to escape their grip.
But the journey is also the less active section of the film, where it has a tendency to drag and is dominated by protagonists who aren’t the most compelling, only broken up by an episode with Booboo Stewart as a friendly Indigenous teenager escaped from a residential school (a detail that serves little to no function). It doesn’t all feel completely worthwhile. Consequently, the Weboys, and particularly that asshole son Donny (Will Brittain) are underdeveloped in the films’ latter half, and don’t really live up to the shadow they cast. That is of course except for Blanche.
The name is not an accident, there’s definitely an air of Tennessee Williams’ delusional southern belle to this character, which Manville taps into alongside the darker impulses and sinister disposition of a horror villain. She’s the only Weboy afforded a semblance of a backstory, as well as some macabre references to deceased family members, yet the film could maybe have benefited from more allusions to her history and derangement. Though she is foreboding enough without, in her visual likeness to Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, her arcane rules of discipline, and her unwavering confidence in her protection from consequence.
It’s largely this that rejuvenates the film after some dullness, that inspires real investment in the Blackledges getting Lorna and Jimmy away from Blanches’ clutches. And in the process, I was surprised with some of the directions the story took and Bezucha’s handling of them. Costner’s not great in the film (though I’ve never been much a fan of his acting), but that reserved old working class tough he’s been playing for the last few years actually suits him alright here, and Diane Lane, in many ways playing the flipside of Manville, is perfectly fierce and determined. The only other performance of note is probably Jeffrey Donovan, noteworthy only because he’s in the movie (as another of Blanche’s sons) and is as fittingly creepy as ever.
Even with all this, the movie does fall into frustrating conventions at times and it always feels like it could be going further with its characters and plot, in addition to those pacing issues I mentioned. But one such convention is the climax, which is solidly entertaining and satisfying; and though it too feels a bit restrained (especially compared to the earlier scene it’s a direct response to), it’s thrilling enough to make for a surprisingly strong ending to the story. I was impressed and genuinely surprised by how much better Let Him Go was than I anticipated. It’s not a great movie by any means (though Manville’s performance certainly deserves some acclaim), but it’s a thoroughly adequate neo-western revenge drama, with touches of a great thriller in there too. And unequivocally a fascinating one for those extended families in the States who will be celebrating Thanksgiving in a few weeks.
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