Let Him Go
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are trying to rescue their grandson from a dodgy family that lives off the grid in this thriller based on Larry Watson's novel.
Still grieving from the loss of their son, a retired sheriff (Costner) and his wife (Lane) must leave their Montana ranch to rescue their grandson who is now in the clutches of a strange family living in the Dakotas.
Less2020Rating: M, Mature themes and violence114 minsUSA
DramaThriller
- Director:
- Thomas Bezucha ('Monte Carlo', 'The Family Stone', 'Big Eden')
- Writer:
- Thomas Bezucha
- Cast:
- Diane LaneKevin CostnerLesley ManvilleKayli CarterBooboo StewartJeffrey DonovanWill BrittainRyan Bruce
Let Him Go | Reviews
84%193 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Slant Magazine
Despite a searing performance from Diane Lane, writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s film ultimately self-immolates.
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IndieWire
Here is a tanned hide of a movie about the violence that results from conflicting ideas of what this country should be, and while the writer/director of “The Family Stone” lacks the chops to tell this story with the suspense it demands (or the hard-nosed focus required to mine something new from the myth it deconstructs), he fully understands the symbolic power of seeing these actors lose something they can never get back.
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Hollywood Reporter
Rescuing Jimmy (and possibly Lorna) from a possessive, abusive husband would have been plenty of drama for this hitherto quiet, sensitive picture. Instead we get a family full of leering thugs, whose depiction sometimes suggests they might have a cousin out in the barn who dresses in other people's flesh. The action doesn't get quite that extreme, but it's bad enough.
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The New Yorker
A showdown of blood and fire, and the one point, I’d argue, at which Let Him Go takes a seriously false step. It is George who girds himself for the final reckoning, but it ought to be Margaret. Her grief has driven this fable. She should be the one to end it.
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A.V. Club
Writer-director Thomas Bezucha, adapting a novel by Larry Watson, shows remarkable patience in developing this low-key rescue mission — or maybe he just assumes that he’s courting an older audience who won’t need much prompting to side with Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, but will enjoy extra time with them all the same.
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Slash Film
Great as our actual dads might be, they simply cannot compete with Costner. The guy perfectly hits all the right notes: honesty, dignity, quiet reserve, rugged Americana – all qualities we want in a hyperbolic father figure. Let Him Go exploits all this and reminds us of one other thing he’s good at: ass-kicking. But Let Him Go isn’t really Costner’s movie. Instead, it belongs to Diane Lane as his wife.
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Vanity Fair
Let Him Go is a swift entertainment, claustrophobic and anxious in its depiction of an impossible, frustrating situation, and satisfying in its gnarly climax.
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Los Angeles Times
In many ways, it feels like the midcentury pulp thrillers it emulates: well-plotted and grisly, but almost ephemeral. It is Lane’s performance that lingers, one that dares to be uniquely hopeful about the future, and letting the old ways die.
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Chicago Tribune
A 1960s-set Western laden with big skies, steady gazes and slow-roasted narrative corn, Let Him Go gets by on the strength of its female leads, Diane Lane and Lesley Manville. Kevin Costner’s effective, too, and he’s right in his taciturn sweet spot, muttering about this and that.
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Variety
Let Him Go isn’t subtle, but as a genre film it’s original and shrewdly made, with a floridly gripping suspense. And Lane and Costner give it their all in a casual way that only pros this seasoned and gifted can. They turn the movie into an unlikely thing: a touchingly bone-weary romance steeped in vengeance.
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Chicago Sun-Times
The abrupt tonal shifts may throw some viewers for a loop, but when the confrontations segue from tense verbal exchanges to sudden bursts of violence, it feels authentic and organic to the foundation laid down in the first half of the film.
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