For the second weekend in a row, despite high hopes, we watched an unsatisfying movie on Saturday night. Last week it was the new Marvel flick, The Eternals, and last night it was Ridley Scott's medieval drama, The Last Duel. Although very different films, in my opinion both suffered from the same problem: too much information. With running times of over two and a half hours, the movies were too ambitious for their own good.
In The Eternals, we must meet and learn the stories of the ten (ten!) title characters. There's over an hour and a half of exposition before the true conflict is revealed, and then another hour to resolve it. Marvel is setting up a new franchise here, possibly to replace the Avengers, but even in the Academy Award winning hands of Chloe Zhao, the movie lags.
Oscars are in no short supply for the cast and crew of The Last Duel, either. Ridley Scott and Ben Affleck both have directing nods, and Affleck and Matt Damon won for their screenplay of Good Will Hunting. None of that talent could salvage Duel for me. Based on the true story of Marguerite Carrouges, who accused Jacques Le Gris, a squire of Normandy, of rape, triggering her husband's duel to the death with him, The Last Duel is a compelling story, told once, maybe even twice, but in this film we see the same events from the perspectives of all three main characters. As each re-telling adds very little to the narrative, the technique is overkill, ultimately unpleasant and worse, boring.
Fingers crossed we'll have better luck next Saturday Night.
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