Let Him Go is a western thriller that has its share of conventional moments, but the strong and solid performances from Kevin Costner and Diane Lane help push this movie at every turn. In fact, their work is the main reason this movie succeeds.
Costner and Lane star as George and Margaret Blackledge. He’s a retired sheriff and she’s a housewife living in 1961 Montana. They lose their son to a horse-riding accident and their daughter-in-law marries another man shortly thereafter with their grandson in tow.
After witnessing her new husband’s cruel behavior and their subsequent disappearance, Margaret becomes convinced that they are in trouble and so she and George travel to North Dakota to try and get their grandson back.
The movie is a thriller of sorts, but it’s a very character-driven drama that actually slows down for development instead of just introducing sound and fury to advance the plot. There are several scenes in which George and Margaret inevitably catch up with their daughter-in-law and they try desperately to bring them home, but she refuses to budge.
Once George and Margaret meet up with her husband’s family, they discover that they are all crazy people who won’t let either one of them or George and Margaret go quietly. A dinner scene is filled with mitigated tension that makes us think things could explode at any moment. That scene earns its moment.
Let Him Go is skillfully directed by Thomas Bezucha and some of the cinematography is quite often breathtaking as in some of the nighttime scenes where Costner and Lane stay in their car and meet the locals.
The movie’s only weakness is that some scenes go through the motions of giving us obligatory albeit jolting suspense and sometimes it ruins the mood and makes it slightly jarring.
Nevertheless, Costner and Lane do carry this movie and sell it through with their earnestness and commitment. Sometimes we don’t know how it will end and sometimes we have an idea, but there’s always something interesting.
Grade: B+
(Rated R for violence.)
