Love of family stands up to violence in ‘Let Him Go’
One responsibility of a film critic is to let prospective viewers know that even if a movie is being strongly recommended, some of its contents could be upsetting. In the case of “Let Him Go,” an adaptation of the 2013 novel by Larry Watson, my warning is that it’s a story filled with unsettling tension, harrowing plot turns and instances of almost unspeakable violence.
Now, before anyone decides this is not a film they want to see, let me dial that back. Yes, there is violence, of both the emotional and physical sort. But there’s no outright gore, it’s not gratuitous, and every bit of it serves to help define characters, to delineate the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Note: The nice folks are outnumbered by those who would do them harm.
The film has a gentle beginning. It’s the early 1960s. A young man, James, is in a corral, working with his horse. James and his wife Lorna (Kayli Carter) and new baby Jimmy soon get together for breakfast with his parents, George and Margaret (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) in the Montana farmhouse the family has called home for years. There’s a slight hint that Lorna thinks Margaret is getting too attached to little Jimmy; otherwise all is well.
But just minutes in, tragedy strikes. James is killed when he’s thrown by his horse. The film jumps ahead a few years, Lorna is marrying a fellow named Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain) and moving into town, and Margaret is unhappy that 3-year-old Jimmy won’t be around the house anymore.
She’s much more than unhappy when, a short time later, in town on errands, she sees, from afar, Donnie slap Jimmy, then slap Lorna. Soon after, paying a visit to Lorna to find out what’s going on, Margaret discovers that all three of them have left town, without a goodbye, to live with Donnie’s family in North Dakota.
What’s a doting, strongwilled grandma to do? In this film of wildly shifting moods and unexpected turns of plot, she makes a snap decision. She will go to North Dakota, find the Weboy family, and bring her grandson back home, where it’s safe. That she doesn’t immediately tell George — a retired lawman, by the way — of her plan doesn’t surprise him. After decades of marriage, he’s well aware of Margaret’s tendency to make up her mind on something, then follow through. They hop in their Chevy station wagon — in which she conveniently forgets to tell him she’s packed his old six-shooter — and begin their long drive.
What unfolds is a story focusing on love of family, in all of its many forms.
They go looking for the Weboy family — which some folks they meet choose to call the Weboy clan — and get, among other veiled warnings, a suggestion that they are not people to mess with.
The road trip also reveals that George and Margaret have had their own ups and downs, but love each other mightily and, despite his initial doubts about what they’re doing, it’s clear that they’re in this thing together.
Turns out it’s not Lorna they should be worried about. A meeting with ever-smiling Bill Weboy (Jeffrey Donovan), a cousin of Donnie, results in the film taking on an aura of menace. Their arrival at the isolated Weboy farm — where they’ve, to their amazement, been expected — results in an introduction to Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville), the smoking, drinking, chattering tough customer of a matriarch who is offputtingly frightening. When her brood of big lug sons arrive at the dinner table, things get really uncomfortable for our out-of-their-element protagonists.
It’s from here on that it all shifts from being tense to becoming almost unbearably unnerving, and is where the violence starts to rear its head. Kudos to everyone involved for across the board terrific performances, and for creating a film that, despite what they’re being shown, will not let viewers avert their eyes.
“Let Him Go” opens in theaters Nov. 6. Check your theater’s website for COVID-19 safety precautions and other information.