By John Corrado

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are an old married couple who fight to save their grandson when their daughter-in-law (Kayli Carter) marries into a violent hillbilly family. This is the basic premise behind filmmaker Thomas Bezucha’s neo-Western thriller Let Him Go, which is arriving on Blu-ray this week.

This is a prime example of a film that I think is perfectly alright, even though it never really rises above a somewhat heavy-handed, melodramatic level. While playing with an obvious sentimentality, the 1963-set film gets the job done well enough as a piece of throwback entertainment, carried by a pair of good performances from Costner and Lane.

The two are backed up by Lesley Manville’s compellingly unhinged, scenery-chewing performance as the matriarch of the Weboy clan, the violent family that their characters are going up against. Furthermore, Let Him Go features attractive widescreen cinematography courtesy of director of photography Guy Godfree, as well as a fittingly melancholic score by Michael Giacchino. It’s nothing remarkable as a whole, but the film still serves as a fairly sturdy old school drama.

While it received a limited theatrical run last fall, this is one of those films that I actually think plays perfectly fine at home. For more on the film itself, you can read my full review of it right here.

Bonus Features (Blu-ray):

The Blu-ray includes three featurettes on the production. A code for a digital copy is also included in the package, which comes with a standard slipcover.

• The Making of Let Him Go (6 minutes, 23 seconds): Members of the cast and crew reflect on the making of the film, including the impressively designed set for the interior of the Weboy family home that was built on a soundstage.

• The Blackledges: Kevin Costner & Diane Lane (4 minutes, 14 seconds): Costner and Lane discuss their characters and how they approached playing them in the film.

• Lighting the Way: Thomas Bezucha (3 minutes, 15 seconds): Bezucha reflects on first discovering the novel by Larry Watson upon which the film is based, and how he approached bringing it to screen.

Let Him Go is a Universal Pictures Home Entertainment release. It’s 114 minutes and rated 14A.

Street Date: February 2nd, 2021