Every story has two sides. But in the case of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s heavy middle-age drama, every story has three sides. Set in the 14th century, The Last Duel has three narrators - Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer). The historical drama is exactly what the title suggests - a duel between Jean and Jacques. The bone of contention is rape. A story told from each of these characters' points of view that has Marguerite accusing her husband Jean’s friend Jacques of raping her and taking her against her will when she was alone and vulnerable. The same incident has two different versions - one where Jacques argues that there was no rape and Marguerite willingly gave herself to him. To judge these versions and decide who is speaking the truth, the King of France orders a duel between the two men, the one who survives will have the hand of God over him and his word shall be declared the truth. The Last Duel is tedious. There is a lot of effort put into creating the right ambience and setting for the big duel in the climax, but the events leading up to it are tiresome and somewhat unnecessary. The entire premise of the film is to debate what is the truth? Director Ridley Scott takes a philosophical approach when weaving this narrative and the fact that you watch the same scenes and events unfold not just once but thrice makes the experience weary. Watching the rape scene thrice, in particular, is excruciatingly uncomfortable and numbing. Was it necessary to be a part of every narrative? That's up for debate. Ridley Scott doesn’t take sides, but you can’t help but empathise with Marguerite who seems to be at the centre of two men battling each other's egos. Jodie Comer as Marguerite delivers a knockout performance and is one of the reasons why the film manages to hold your attention. Adam Driver takes to Le Gris like a moth to a flame, he is utterly likeable, yet you don’t trust him easy. Matt Damon’s de Carrouges is not only flawed but also boring. He seems self-absorbed and so one-dimensional that Driver steals all the attention in most of their confrontational scenes. Ben Affleck is a treat and seems to be having the most fun - his almost Joker-like account is the speck of light in this dark and heavy drama. The Last Duel is Scott’s most confusing experiment. The genre might be his stronghold, but in an attempt to intellectualise the storytelling format he ends up emphasising more on treatment and less on emotion. The Last Duel is about two men battling it out to survive, but it's the woman who steals all the attention. Eventually, The Last Duel ends up being Jodie Comer’s sweet success. Read more

In the year 1386, a charge of rape led to arguably the last sanctioned duel in France’s history. This interesting factoid formed the basis for a novel by Eric Jager. Director Ridley Scott (who knows a thing or two about “honorable” men and their lust for fights), and Damon and Affleck have lent their acting and script writing talents (the first time they are co-writing since Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting) to tell this story through an interesting three-way perspective. It’s two ‘He Saids’ vs a ‘She Said’, informed by MeToo, and acutely conscious of the dubious glory in which men cover themselves as “protectors”. There is a third screenwriter as well, Nicole Holofcener. The first part is the perspective of the husband, Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon). He is a man raised to fight, and to do little else, never having learnt to read, write, or show love other than for procreation. He is silly, obstinate, foolhardy, brave enough to be a knight, but nursing at all times a grudge for having been “wronged”. Damon wears his hair in an unflattering cut, and fills out this unfortunate character rather well in all its rough edges and weak points. The second episode is told through the eyes of the alleged rapist and Carrouges’s former friend, Jacques Le Gris (Driver). Le Gris is born poor, but ambitious, good-looking and well-read, and uses those talents well to inveigle his way into the inner circle of Pierre (a decadent Affleck), the King’s cousin who rules these parts. Driver plays the role with flourish, though the film does not allow Le Gris the shades of grey which would have served him better. Le Gris was once a godfather to Carrouges’s dead son, and harbours a lingering affection for the latter, even as he makes gains with Pierre at Carrouges’ cost. The third episode, the most effective, satisfying, and unfortunately truncated, is the story of Lady Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) in her own words. Left for the last, Holofcener gives us a succinct character sketch of a woman in medieval France, treated like chattel, first by father, then by husband, and lastly by a man she even secretly admired. Having already run through the story twice in the first and second parts (against a consistently cold, bleak landscape), the film is not interested in the details as much here as in Marguerite herself, who is much more intelligent and lovelier than her husband, and is forced to play second-fiddle, reined in by a husband who knows no other way, and watched over by an unforgiving mother-in-law. Comer, who is not very expressive with her acting, could have done with more passion in her portrayal. However, there is no escaping the humiliation and pain that are heaped on her — including in Carrouges’s subsequent battle for her honour. The Last Duel engages with the idea of consent (if not too convincingly), the torture of a trial, the cost of silence, and the often-greater price of speaking up for women. However, where it is on most solid ground is in conveying the delusions of men.Read more