Review 632: The Last Duel

 

20 years ago, Ridley Scott successfuly modernised the Historical epic with Gladiator. Now, he brings us The Last Duel, a film that tries to tackle misogyny in the Middle Ages but the end result feels less than the sum of its parts.

Based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager, In 1386 France, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) claims to have been brutally assulted by Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), her husband Jean de Carrouges' (Matt Damon) friend. Now, in order to prove his wife's claim, de Carrouges must fight Le Gris to the death, the victor believed to be determined by God.

Taken at face value, this sounds like a fairly simple premise, but Scott employs the age old technique of telling this fabled tale through different perspectives clearly inspired by Kurosawa's Rashamon. The film is broken up into three different chapters like a three act play, each from the POV of one of our three leads.

From Jean’s perspective, Marguerite was raped by Jacques out of jealousy for his wartime accomplishments. Jacques POV is a bit more ambiguous with the squire believing himself innocent of any wrongdoing even though a brutal rape scene proves otherwise. The third and final chapter is shown from Marguerite‘s perspective 

Unfortunately, that innovation is somewhat undone by the fact that this film is based on a true story.    Only the truth about what happens exist. In The Last Duel, the perspectives bleed together.    

The movie contains violence and death but not really very much (save for the final duel and some brief set peice battles in the first half). For the majority of its languorous running time, it listens to the courtroom conversations of Jean, Jacques and Marguerite. This would play better if any of them were engaging conversationalists, unfortunately, none of our three leads prove to be particularly engaging because their conversations essentially boil to repetitive and unsubtle renderings of accusations of assault.                    At times the retellings through different POV’s come off as extraneous and the pacing suffers as a result.

Ridley Scott's direction is  the cinematography is excellent and captures the grimy environments of medievil France; the score by Harry Gregson-Williams is beautiful and captures the medieval atmosphere. The production design (recreating 14th Century France) is terrific, the costumes are 

As for the acting, newcomer Jodie Comer and Adam Driver are the standouts playing Marguerite de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris. Comer emerges as the true star of the piece 

Matt Damon feels uncomfortable playing Jean de Carrouge

Ben Affleck is fine in his nice sized role playing Count Pierre d’Alencon. 

2.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.