Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Let Him Go’ on HBO Max, a Gritty Thriller Showcasing Two Veteran Stars in Peak Form

Let Him Go arrives on HBO and HBO Max after earning a fistful of good reviews during a brief mid-pandemic theatrical run last year. And I’ll be damned if it isn’t a Western, which might explain the critical warmth — we just don’t get many of them ’round these here parts no more. Kevin Costner is the Western Guy who stars in it; most recently, he anchored the TV series Yellowstone, from creator Taylor Sheridan, whose film work (Hell or High Water, Wind River) this new movie most resembles. But if you’re not watching Let Him Go for co-star Diane Lane, then you’re not watching it for the right reason.

LET HIM GO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Montana. 1961. Dawn. Hay bales. Horses. Three generations under one roof: George (Costner) and Margaret (Lane), their son James (Ryan Bruce) and daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter) and grandson Jimmy. Margaret and Lorna butt heads a bit over the temperature of the baby’s bath — mothers-in-law, right? — and James trains the horse. He rides out to check the fence line but the horse comes back empty-saddled and when George hustles out to the ridge one of his greatest fears is realized. The thing no parent ever wants to go through. Time passes and I don’t know if they’re healed, but they’re moving on and so is Lorna. Jimmy is a toddler now. She marries glowering Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain) as George and Margaret stand quietly and not long after, Margaret spots the new family on the street being smacked around by Donnie. And then Margaret makes them a cake and goes to deliver it but the apartment is empty.

Do not underestimate the grandmaternal instinct. Margaret packs up the station wagon with suitcases and the cake and George’s service revolver from when he was a sheriff and when George comes home he has no say in this. She’s going to get Jimmy and he can stay or he can go. Donnie was from somewhere in North Dakota. George sighs and gets behind the wheel because he knows it has to be done but doesn’t know that the gun is under the seat wrapped in a handkerchief although he will soon enough. On their way out they stop by the cemetery and George gets out but Margaret stays. She doesn’t need a reminder her son is dead. “Sometimes that’s all life is, Margaret. A list of what we lost,” George says.

They stop around about the state line and check in with the sheriff’s office. George knows the chief but he isn’t the chief anymore. The cop on hand knows George though, and George and his former boss once hunted down some bad guys. George says yeah, we did that. The Weboys are the same. No-gooders. Trouble. They can stay the night in the jail if they want and they agree. It’s clean, and empty. George has a flashback dream of the time he found James twisted and empty-eyed on the rocks. When George and Margaret get to Dakota the hills loom foreboding. The Weboys are as advertised and led by their brassy matriarche Blanche (Lesley Manville) who invites them in for pork chops with a thick ladling of intimidation. They knew they wouldn’t be able to just walk in and take their grandson all easy-like and neither did we.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This is a mid-century Hell or High Water — with a lightly bickering old married couple instead of lightly bickering brothers — crossed with the Margo Martindale season of Justified, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Costner-directed Western Open Range.

Performance Worth Watching: Lane is incandescent here. If awards season is dicey, or maybe even if it isn’t, she seems ripe for some nominations.

Memorable Dialogue: The car radio fuzzes from music to a preacher lighting up the fire and brimstone.

Margaret: Sounds like your daddy, thumpin’ the Bible.

George: Wasn’t just Bibles he thumped.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: We’ve seen a lot of movies like Let Him Go, thrillers with maddening circumstances driving nice people to desperation. Or whatever it is that’s inside George — a tough guy who can’t do what he used to, maybe, but now he’s an old man torn between pragmatism and passion, who knows the right thing to do is to pursue his grandson’s safety, but is all too aware that it’s an impossible mission. Margaret is purer of moral character, not content to be a typical mid-American housewife, and plenty tough herself — she didn’t just ride horses when she was younger, she broke them. And now this couple has to face the Weboy family, who are what exactly? Organized criminals? Moonshiners? The Texas Chainsaw family of North Dakota? We can only wonder.

On paper, the film isn’t at all extraordinary, its characters roughly sketched and left for the cast to fill in. Thankfully, director Thomas Bezucha has Lane and Costner to carry the dramatic load, bringing great life and depth to those moments when they have to play a lived-in, comfy old couch of a married couple who communicate more in between the words than with the words themselves. You know, the quiet parts speak loudest, and all that. They keep us enthralled and invested in their predicament.

Without that chemistry, this is just another dark thriller lying around waiting to bum us out. Let Him Go is far better than the generic title implies. Booboo Stewart shows up as a lonely young American Indian who befriends George and Margaret, and the actor makes the most of a character who’s ultimately just a plot device. You’ll wish Manville had more to do than just goose the endeavor with a larger-than-life performance; her fascistic matriarch enjoys a few good, showy moments but is underwritten. And the conclusion, well, it’s kind of a bunch of hooey, but we also feel it coming, because when do situations like this end well, with hugs and cake? No, it’s more of a two-shotgun-shells-and-a-can-of-gas situation, and the film makes the crucial mistake of sidelining Lane for its biggest moments. But it stumps hard for the value of the Western here in the 21st century, and it’s persuasive.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Let Him Go gives us Gravelly Costner and Tenacious Lane, and for that, it’s damn well worth a look.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream Let Him Go