Review: The Last Duel (2021)
Well made, but a bit clinical.
The absolute least you can say about The Last Duel is that it means well. It could scream “Believe her!” and it basically does. That is a good thing, of course, so why did the movie leave me with such mixed feelings? Maybe because the way the same story is told three times, each time from a different perspective, feels a touch gimmicky; maybe because I lack the empathy to truly get into the life of a 14th century French(-American) knight; maybe because it touches on a lot, but glosses over a lot more. Whatever the case, I was left wanting. That’s not to say the movie was terrible, not at all. It’s just, well, not great.
The Last Duel, directed by Hollywood grande dame Ridley Scott, tells the story of the last trial by the combat France saw, somewhere near the end of the 14th century, following the rape of the Lady Marguerite (an understated Jodie Comer), wife of Jean de Carrouges (a mulleted Matt Damon), by erstwhile brother-in-arms Jacques Le Gris (a suitably slimy Adam Driver). As the story unfolds it becomes clear that everybody sucks, life is brutal and men in power suck most of all. I’m honestly not sure what the takeaway should be. A mother’s love is stronger than rape? No, that can’t be right. You can rape someone without knowing it if your society is sufficiently mysoginistic? No, no…
The movie is more than competently made, its setting and use of firelight evoking The Favourite (although the latter was more consistent in its lighting), its clanking swords and clinking armor hard and brutal and terrifying. Not as terrifying, maybe, as a relentless Adam Driver chasing the object of his self-centered infatuation, but still… Still I’m left wondering what the intended takeaway is, let alone what my takeaway is. This might seem silly, were it not for the explicit, almost lurid way the film makes clear it definitely, absolutely has a message. Maybe it’s simply that in a puritanical society even movies about sexuality can only show naked bodies in the background and out of focus? Yeah, a bit meta, but that sounds about right.
