The Last Duel‘s compelling, interpersonal drama is brought to life by smart direction and a supremely talented cast. Adapted from Eric Jager’s book, the film tells the true story of the last legally-sanctioned duel in 14th-century France, sparked by allegations of sexual abuse. Jodie Comer is Marguerite de Carrouges, the wife of Matt Damon’s Sir Jean, who levies a rape allegation against Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris, a friend-turned-rival of Sir Jean. The screenwriting/co-producing trio of Damon, Ben Affleck (who also features in the film), and Nicole Holofcener smartly structure the “he said”/”she said” story into chapters, based on the subjective perspectives of the three main characters. It has shades of Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film where characters recount wildly contradictory versions of the same event. The Last Duel features more subtle differences between the three accounts: one person’s story shows a lingering kiss, while another’s shows a quick peck—you get the idea. These nuanced differences add a rewarding element into an already-rich drama. Each small change reveals much about the character and their internal worldview, not to mention everyone’s tendency to see themselves as the sympathetic protagonist of the story.
The cast is The Last Duel‘s selling point, and they make great work of the drama and subtle nuances between the accounts. With each different retelling of the same events, the cast has to portray slightly altered versions of themselves throughout the film. Comer’s performance is less flashy than her co-stars by design, but the movie doesn’t work without her commanding performance. She captures the slow, crescendoing strain as the weight of playing a pawn between the egos of powerful men threatens to break her. Driver continues to be one of the finest living actors and, calling my shot now, the best of his generation. He is never not compelling, an absolute joy to watch, and we should just give him an Oscar now. While a little distracting to see Damon and Affleck share a scene, Damon completely loses himself in the stiff, proud, compulsive Sir Jean. And Affleck, who at one point pursued Driver’s role, is best utilized as the smarmy, womanizing Count Pierre, beautifully hamming it up with his bleach-blonde hair and selected screen time.
Director Ridley Scott is wise to let his performers carry the film and to enhance their performances with smart directing choices. While the film is not short (a robust 153 minutes), it never drags. Scott is good at letting dramatic scenes breathe, and exercises uncommon restraint in cutting away from varied battle sequences once they’ve served their storytelling purpose. Scott has a fascinating track record, a resume that features true game changers (Alien, Blade Runner) and outright turds—but he is pulling from his Gladiator playbook and ignoring the pitfalls of his messier period epics. The costume and set production looks amazing, and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (a frequent collaborator of Scott’s) captures the grim reality of Medieval France.
Where the movie falters is its indifference in letting the mystery of Marguerite’s allegations simmer. The movie shows us the inciting incident too early, so the audience knows the truth of what happened with roughly 45 minutes left. It deflates much of the tension until we reach the duel that will decide Marguerite’s fate, and would have better maintained suspense if the movie withheld that revelation until the final stretch of the film.
But even with that narrative misstep, The Last Duel is an engrossing and satisfying experience; it’s also a box office disaster. As one of the last films in production by 20th Century Fox before they were bought and merged with Disney, I’m not sure Disney knew exactly what to do with this film. Maybe it’s unwise to open a period drama in the same October weekend as horror franchise mainstay Halloween Kills; maybe audiences were unsure what to make of a lengthy, Medieval film about a rape allegation. Either way, audiences in search of a gripping, dramatically-rich, powerfully-acted story should find their way to The Last Duel.
The Last Duel is currently playing in theaters. It runs 152 minutes and is rated R for strong violence including sexual assault, sexual content, some graphic nudity, and language.
