The Last Duel is simply a class act of a movie. Ridley Scott. Matt Damon. Ben Affleck. Adam Driver. Nicole Holofcener. Jodie Comer. All these people believe in this story and it’s importance, and give their all to make the movie work. I felt art and entertainment oozing out of every frame of this movie, completely satisfied when it reached its conclusion. Big budget Oscar bait? Give me more please!
The last legally sanctioned duel in France happened in 1386. That duel was between Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). The trial by combat happened because Jean’s wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accused Le Gris of rape and Le Gris accused Marguerite of lying to God/under oath.
The storytelling in The Last Duel is built upon famous real world history obviously, but it also has as well thought out downright intimidating behind the scenes pedigree too. The story construction draws upon one of the great movies in history: Rashomon. That movie posits that each story is subjective depending on its narrator, making it near impossible to obtain total objectivity. The Last Duel puts the Rashomon effect through more of a modern #MeToo lens, elevating Marguerite’s story into the pivotal puzzle piece to a tale that was previously only viewed through a male gaze. Writing 2/3 of the story are the Good Will Hunting Boys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. But smartly, they realized they couldn’t write Marguerite’s piece, so they brought in brilliant Oscar nominee Nicole Holofcener to complete that critical part of the tale. And directing The Last Duel? The historical epic master, Ridley Scott, you know, the guy that asked us “are you not entertained?” rhetorically.
With the right behind the scenes pieces in place, a solid cast would have made at least a decent movie. Fortunately this cast is way better than solid. This movie is mostly a 3 hander between Jodie Comer, Adam Driver, and Matt Damon. All 3 have a great time taking essentially 3 versions of the same story, and making small changes to their performances to tell 3 unique tales. Comer in particular is spectacular, capturing loads of nuance with a small look or slipping off of a pair of shoes, painting a fascinating picture of a clever woman bound by terrible circumstances not of her own making. Damon has a ball playing 3 different characters: a righteous hero, a whiny nagger, and a self-righteous doofus capturing all sides of Jean’s personality. And Driver bounces between aloof and downright creepy shockingly easily. And if none of that harrowing tale is working for you, Ben Affleck comes in for 20-30 minutes and has you doubling over laughing at his privileged medieval f*ckboi routine.
When people say they don’t make em like they used to, they’re referring to movies like The Last Duel. A relic of pre-superhero Hollywood, I wonder how many strange requests producers tried to make to Damon and Affleck to get superheroes into this movie. Maybe Jodie Comer is really Mystique? What if Adam Driver could just play Kylo Ren as Jacques Le Gris instead? As a result, The Last Duel, though struggling at the box office, is going to find enough of an audience over multiple streaming services, and outlast Venom 5: The Viper or whatever lame sequel comes in the next couple years.