The Last Duel Review: Prestige Period Filmmaking, Stunning Swordfights, And Piercing Performances [Venice 2021]

Prestige period filmmaking rarely sizzles like "The Last Duel." Ridley Scott, master of high-budget history, is mercifully in "Gladiator" form rather than "Kingdom of Heaven" with his latest medieval movie. All is as it should be here: stunning swordfights, dazzling duels, nimble narrativization, and psychologically piercing performances from the trio of leads.

The film's accomplishments teeter precariously on the edge of sensitive gender politics given the subject matter. Jodie Comer's Marguerite presents a rarity: a 14th century example of a woman charging rape against a man, Adam Driver's Jacques LeGris. When faced with this divulgence from his wife, Matt Damon's Jean de Carrouges appeals all the way to the king of France for a duel for her honor. In this time and place, the combat not only draws blood but also determines the veracity of her claim in the eyes of the law.

In the run-up to the release of "The Last Duel," the creative team emphasized the bifurcation of duties among the film's three credited screenwriters. The dynamic duo of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck tackled the stories of Jean and Jacques, while indie stalwart Nicole Holofcener wrote from Marguerite's point of view. The division of labor had the potential to be a PR gambit, proactively absolving the Boston bros of any problematic handling of a hot-button issue. But the decision to bring Holofcener on board does serve the film itself, echoing the film's consciousness of subjective perspective at the meta-level of production.

"The Last Duel" requires a remarkable amount of self-awareness from each of the film's central figures. They must not only play their character as they see themselves but also twice as they exist in someone else's mind. The precision with which they must shade their performances is nothing short of remarkable.

While a blonde Ben Affleck hamming it up to hilarious effect is undoubtedly the film's scene-stealer, the most impressive performance of the bunch is Jodie Comer. For most of the movie, Marguerite exists purely as an object in the eye of the film's men – less of a person and more of a means to an end. But Comer refuses to flatten the character to their submissive standards, both meeting the assignment while also subverting it through dense subtext. Her hints for the audience that fly over the heads of oblivious guys pay tremendous dividends when "The Last Duel" circles back to her story.

But don't sleep on Matt Damon, who undergoes a tremendous transformation throughout each episode. The unassuming manner in which he portrays Jacques first through his own conception jibes entirely with his frequent iterations of the humble hero. Yet the pathetic, petulant side of his self-assurance, as filtered through Jacques and his navel-gazing disregard for others in pursuit of his own ambitions and as observed through Marguerite, undercut his stature from multiple angles. Damon has proven remarkably willing to subvert expectations of his on-screen persona in recent years. Following a vulnerable turn in "Ford v Ferrari" and a morally ambiguous one in "Stillwater," this is yet another fascinating wrinkle in simplistic understandings of his stardom.

Driver is, of course, compelling in his own right. The presence with which he can hold the screen with his enormity will always astound. But among the triad, Jacques is the most static across stories because he's even an aggressor in his own head. The difference is that, in his mind, he's earned the right to claim what he views as rightfully his by the merits of his own superiority. Watching his flimsy self-justification is quite the illumination of how patriarchal power ensconces itself for generations.