Diane Lane is watching America spin from abroad in Toronto. She quarantined for two weeks before filming recently began for the long in the works FX series “Y: The Last Man.” But on this day, she’s revisiting a film she shot last year, the period thriller “Let Him Go.” A movie that has gotten mostly positive reviews, but has critics universal in two aspects. Recognition of up and coming cinematographer Guy Godfree‘s beautiful lensing and yet another noteworthy performance by the 2003 Oscar Best Actress nominee.
WATCH “Let Him Go” trailer with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane
“I thought that the script was very fresh and a lot of different elements were coalescing in one screenplay,” Lane says. “And I was a fan of [director] Tom Bezucha from his work on ‘The Family Stone.’ And I just knew that he would really flesh out all the different perspectives that are covered in our story.”
Based on Larry Watson‘s 2013 novel, the film centers on Margaret and George Blackledge (Lane, Kevin Costner), a Montana couple whose son unexpectedly dies in a horse-riding accident. His passing finds the Blackledges inclined to help raise their young grandson until his mother Lorna (Kayli Carter) remarries a mysterious out-of-towner, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain) who may not have their best interests at heart. When Donnie quickly leaves town with Lorna and her child, Margaret becomes obsessed with tracking them down, much to George’s chagrin. That eventually puts them at odds with Donnie’s clan led by the morally circumspect Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville having the time of her life). As you can guess, conflict ensues.
“It’s interesting that you read a script, and then you film it and then you see it,” Lane says. “Those are three very different experiences, right? And I was experiencing the filming of it very much in the relation between George and Margaret. George, to me, was rather patiently, and indulgently trying to help his wife process her grief in her way. Because they’re both so thunderstruck by the loss of their son, their only child. He didn’t witness what Margaret witnessed as far as the danger that she believes that their grandchild is in. And as he says, he’s trying to give her an opportunity to, ‘Say goodbye.'”
Lane continues, “There are three different mothers in this story that have three different experiences and three different versions of what that looks like. So, there’s a lot of different points of view.”
The “Unfaithful” and “Man of Steel” star says just having the opportunity to spar on-screen with Manville was enough for her to do the movie, but overall the experience lived up to the script Bezucha wrote. She notes, “I don’t know if that’s sadly rare, but it is rare. It’s just a lucky, happy moment for me because you can’t really force those things into being.”
Her virtual press tour for “Let Him Go” has also found her fielding a lot of questions about one of her biggest hits, 2003’s “Under the Tuscan Sun.” And she sees a distinct difference between that adaptation and this particular film.
“People have been talking to me lately a lot about ‘Under the Tuscan Sun,’ because in these times, people are looking for things that make them feel joyful, and they go on a road trip, and they get to have a cappuccino or live vicariously,” Lane says. “And that book didn’t have a filmable plot for a movie, so that was all about Audrey Wells‘ contribution. And in this case, Tom had a plethora of things. I’d love to work with him again if the opportunity presented itself. And I would say that for everybody involved in this. It was one of the good gifts from 2019.”
The Focus Features release is one of the first real studio or mini-major releases to hit theaters in the U.S. since multiplexes reopened this past summer. Outside of “Tenet,” most releases have been from independent distributors. While Lane fans in LA will need to go to a drive-in or drive to Orange County to catch it and New Yorkers will have to venture to New Jersey or upstate, she thinks moviegoers should do whatever makes them feel comfortable in deciding how to see it.
“I know that films are being released in a very careful manner, in terms of only in zones where it’s been approved because of protocols that are being followed, and numbers that are being traced,” Lane says. “So I’m sure that there’s a link that if I could give it to you, I would. And it’s telling everybody, ‘This has been vetted, and protocols will be in place to make people feel comfortable.’ But that’s really a very private decision these days. Of course, this film will find its way into other mediums or access points. But I think it will play beautifully on a big screen because it’s just beautifully shot. It’s multiple genres going on in this film. So you feel like you’ve been somewhere, and been through something very different.”
This week, however, while the U.S. experiences a historic election, Lane will be working on “Y” in the Great White North. A project that has found a new showrunner, Eliza Clark, and new cast members, Olivia Thirlby and Ashley Romans, since the pilot was filmed way back in 2018. That being said, in the two years since the project has become more timely than anyone involved since it first filmed could ever imagine.
“I know the graphic novels are from another era of that medium. And so the exploration of what goes on in the story is going to be visited through a more modern lens whether that’s the issues that come into play in the plot or whether it’s the world has changed so much since the graphic novel came out,” Lane says. “And I’m excited that the writers of the original material are open to us fleshing this out in a way that is as modern and timely as possible, as much as you can. I mean, of course, there’s a pandemic in our story, and so many things about the story have become less and less science fiction and more and more science. What was so surreal about the story has become a little less surreal. So to be filming a story about a pandemic while one is happening is confronting.”
“Let Him Go” opens nationwide on Friday.
