The Last Duel (2021)

 

Director: Ridley Scott. Cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck. 152 min. Drama/History.

• Based on a true story, in 14th century France, a knight's wife accuses the king's squire of rape.
• The story is told Rashomon-style in three perspectives: the knight's, squire's, and wife's narratives. I'm suspicious of the movie's vocabulary (whether the word rape was used in the same context as we use today), and while the actual scene is as disturbing as other prominent moments in director Ridley Scott's career (namely, the Alien chest-bursting scene), the story wisely ends as though the truth embedded within rape accusations has been troubling human societies for centuries.
• Matt Damon plays his Stillwater role if that character had been around 700 years ago: a simpleton with strong loyalties, going against stronger forces by sheer willpower. Twice in the same year we're seeing a different Damon. Good on him.
• Ben Affleck continues his trend of playing "ill-suited" roles. I've always had this uncanny feeling that he's is in competition with Damon (even though they co-wrote and co-produced this) - like: "You think Jason Bourne is tough okay then I'll be Batman." He makes no effort here to look anything ... medieval. Wrong actor for the role.
• After Free Guy, this is new-to-movies Jodie Comer's second great presence in one year. Her agent must be doing something right.
• The rate at which the great Ridley Scott is churning out grand, engaging epic-scale movies blows my mind. While I would've settled with a shorter movie, I guess its story-telling structure makes the long duration inevitable. The movie's namesake final dual will throw you into palpitations.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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