Movie Review - Let Him Go

This is an adaptation of Larry Watson's 2013 novel. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone and Big Eden) does an excellent job of translating the essential story to the screen. Bezucha also directs his actors into powerful performances that buttress and lift high that essential story. However, there are what feels like gaps in that story. That story is basically centering on two mothers or three, but the story becomes dominated by that of two mothers. We get a sense of one mother's story and the details of her motherhood. Yet, the other mother gets a bit short-changed. The acting performance for that other mother is so strong that it overshadows the deficiency, but that deficiency exists none-the-same.

Diane Lane (Man of Steel and Unfaithful) stars as Margaret Blackledge, a mother and grandmother living on a horse farm in Montana, 1961. She's a veritable or even literal horse whisperer. We get a better sense of her story than we do the other mother, but there's still some deficiencies here. The first deficiency is Margaret's relationship with her daughter-in-law, Lorna, played by Kayli Carter (Mrs. America and Private Life). The film starts off with Margaret and Lorna having tension and not liking each other all that much. It's implied that Margaret doesn't think Lorna is a good mother, but we're not given enough information as to why Margaret thinks such. The performances between Lane and Carter is so great that the deficiency can be forgiven, but it's a wonder if Watson had more information about Margaret and Lorna's relationship that simply didn't make it into the final cut of this film.

Kevin Costner (Man of Steel and Dances With Wolves) co-stars as George Blackledge, the husband to Margaret who is a former sheriff who is nearing retirement in the law enforcement field. He also assists on the horse farm with his wife. He's the more gruff and least sentimental one between him and his wife. He loves his wife and will support her. Yet, when Lorna leaves the state with Margaret and George's grandson, Margaret wants to pursue and bring her grandson back, but George is constantly arguing against it. Personal losses haunt him and his wife and he doesn't want their grandson to be another loss for them.

In most films like this, which could be labeled as a neo-western, the villain is typically a man. It's rare for a woman to be the villain in this kind of position, as essentially the head of a crime family. Some can point to the recent Animal Kingdom (2010) with Jacki Weaver getting an Oscar nomination for it. A better comparison might be to season two of FX's Justified, which featured an Emmy-winning performance from Margo Martindale. However, that series had a whole season to really develop the relationship between Martindale's matriarch character and her thug sons. This film doesn't have that kind of time.

Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread and Another Year) also co-stars as Blanche Weboy, the head of the Weboy crime family in rural North Dakota. If one saw that second season of Justified, Blanche will feel familiar, but somehow Manville manages to feel even more threatening and menacing a presence. Unfortunately, the film is told exclusively from the point-of-view of Margaret and George, so we don't get any real time in the shoes of Blanche. Her relationship with her son, Donnie, played by Will Brittain (Blow the Man Down and A Teacher), forms the crux of her issues, but the film really can't devote much to that relationship to make us really understand it. Manville's performance is so enthralling that we forgive those deficiencies.

What we gather is that Donnie is the runt of the litter or he's the weakest of Blanche's children. The rest of whom are grown men, but only two are still alive. She also has a younger brother named Bill Weboy, played by Jeffrey Donovan (Fargo and Burn Notice), but he behaves as if he's just another one of her sons. Blanche describes how she's also suffered a lot of losses in her family and she doesn't want any more losses. When she becomes the step-grandmother to Margaret's grandson, that puts Blanche at odds with Margaret. The back-half of the film basically becomes a thrilling custody battle over the grandson, and it is thrilling. Yet, there are deficiencies here. Maybe Watson's book fills in those deficiencies, but they're left blank in the film.

Blanche is hellbent with not letting go of Margaret's grandson named Jimmy, even though Jimmy isn't biologically related to Blanche. Nevertheless, Blanche makes a claim on Jimmy and refuses to let go. Because Blanche has lost so much, she's determined not to lose anything else. Blanche is also so determined because her son, Donnie, apparently left the family. Yet, we don't know why Donnie left his family. We don't know why he went from North Dakota to Montana or why he even went back. Guy Nattiv's Skin (2019) has a similar story line where a young man tries to leave his crime family but is pulled back. Yet, we see why and how. This film just has Donnie pop in and pop out without much exploration of his relationship with his mother.

Finally, Booboo Stewart (White Frog and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) plays Peter Dragswolf, a young Native American who lives alone not far from where the Weboy ranch is. Booboo Stewart is fast becoming the go-to actor if you want a hot, young Native American in your film. He's great here and a warm presence that's much appreciated.

Rated R for violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.

In select theaters.