THE LAST DUEL

Ridley Scott is back at it again with another star studded cast that includes Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, and TV now turned film star, Jodie Comer. The story is based on a true event taking place in 1386 France. Damon plays Jean de Carrouges, a man struggling financially through life, and in turn to earn money, constantly is off fighting France's battles with their neighbors in order to stay afloat. While fighting he meets Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and the 2 begin their friendship to open the film. However, Driver is quick to make powerful friends upon his return to France, which only elevates his status within high society; whereas Damon is a brute, not very well mannered, and painstakingly speaks his mind at times, which more often than not, gets him into trouble with the very same crowd. One of Driver's new friends is Pierre d'Alençon (Ben Affleck) who is the cousin to King Charles VI. He lives a life of leisure but has trouble collecting debts. He enlists Driver's help in collecting and proving himself valuable to the task, he's quickly rewarded with property and status. The rise in Driver's status and the friction between Affleck's and Damon's drives a wedge between the Driver/Damon friendship. Off fighting another war, Damon's wife Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) is left home alone one day when her mother-in-law goes to town to run some errands. Driver uses the opportunity of her solitude to force himself in the house and onto Comer. With no evidence of the crime other than Comer's word of guilt against Driver's of innocence, Damon challenges Driver to a duel and allow God to decide where the truth lays. A modern day RASHOMON, the story repeats itself 3 different times, from each characters point of view. And while this is appreciated, Kurosawa was able to wrap it up in 88 minutes. Scott's runtime balloons up to 152 minutes. Obviously, some scenes could have been trimmed out or omitted all together. The opening 30-45 minutes speeds through rather quickly to establish Driver's/Damon's friendship along with Affleck's/Damon's acrimonious relationship. However, once that's settled, the rest of the film until the duel itself is wrapped up within the 3 main characters. The film did feel a bit bloated but any longer and it would have really dragged on. With a cast like this, Comer continues to shine the brightest as she transitions from TV star to film star, showing a wonderful range as the sweet and innocent wife from Damon's perspective, to a woman who "wanted it" from Driver's, to how she views herself. Affleck also deserves a shoutout as the extremely pompous and arrogant, while rocking blonde hair and beard, Pierre. 6/10