There is very little time to relax in director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go, in theaters Nov. 5.  The suspense thriller, also produced and written by Bezucha, is based on the 2013 novel of the same name by author Larry Watson. What results from this collaboration is an edge-of-your-seat experience.

Starring Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and Lesley Manville, the movie is set in the late 50s using the ominous and contrasting backdrops of Montana and the Dakotas; both settings being characters in their own right.

After the accidental death of their son, George Blackledge (Costner) and his tough-as-nails wife Margaret (Lane), care for their daughter-in-law (Kayli Carter) and grandson.  Within a few years, the daughter-in-law remarries a man named Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain) and moves overnight with her abusive new husband to his family home in North Dakota.  Headed by mother Blanche Weboy (Manville), the Weboy clan is as foreboding and ominous as the isolated Dakota farm they live on. Following a tense first meeting and an attempt to rescue their grandson and his mother, George and Margaret are forced to take matters into their own hands.  

The story is fast moving, but the spirit of the novel has not been lost and has been skillfully brought to the screen.  Costner is gravelly and stoic as George, and portrays the character as a deep feeling, man of few words who has seen it all.  Equally steely and  stoic with a hint of a soft side is Lane. Both are brilliant. Manville steals the show and offers us the same haunting, unwavering presence as she did in The Phantom Thread, this time with a bit of a maniacal slant. Equally brilliant. The supporting cast presents a solid ensemble, most notably Booboo Stewart of Twilight and X-Men who plays the only ally of the Blackledge’s, the tragic and heroic Peter Dragswolf.

This movie, as I said, is “edge-of-your-seat” viewing. Go see it on the big screen, if possible.  

My grade, A. Let Him Go opens in theaters Nov. 5 and it rated R for language and violence. Running time is 1 hour and 54 minutes.