"Let Him Go": Movie Review
Written By Alex Greenbaum
In more ways than one, "Let Him Go" holds a great deal of exciting potential. Besides its bursts of thrilling violence and welcome screen presence of stars such as Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, the film mostly comes across as wasted energy. From the beginning, its absurd premise becomes increasingly contrived and is eventually relegated to these artificially high stakes that slowly dissolve into a predictable formula. There's entertainment to be had, but the weight of its lazy script and bland direction by Thomas Bezucha ("The Family Stone"), adapted from a novel by Larry Watson, drags heavily.
An ex-sheriff (Costner) and his wife (Lane) venture out to rescue their young grandson, who they perceive to be in danger.
The thrilling moments scattered about in the second half of the film are something to admire, however its final execution falls drastically short of its intentions. Almost every element (music, acting, script, etc.) feels borderline unattentive to its own motivations. Costner's and Lane's thinly written characters only make the plot more unbearable as the film scurries along without additional explanation. Why these characters would trudge through such horrific violence is never convincingly laid out, at least not enough to warrant a meaningful connection to them.
By the time the climax is completed, the abrupt end and unsatisfying resolution did not surprise. The actors do almost nothing to elevate its TV movie-esque material to greater heights. "Let Him Go" does little right in crafting a thrilling revenge tale, and what might have been constituted as an edgy, exciting drama on paper, is a failure in action.
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