Will Smith’s open-handed Code Duello slap of Chris Rock is reminiscent of the pretty good movie directed by the ancient Sir Ridley Scott that was snubbed by the Oscars, The Last Duel.
Based on a true story from France in 1386, Matt Damon plays the dumber knight who accuses the smarter social climber (Adam Driver) of raping his wife. Their liege Monsieur (Ben Affleck) sides with Driver, who is the only man smart enough to make sense of his financial situation.
But the accusation goes to the King and Parlement, who throw up their hands at figuring out the he said–she said and order the two knights to fight to the death and let God sort it out. If Damon loses, by the way, his wife will be burned at the stake for perjury.
The story is told Rashomon style with both men and the wife presenting their narratives. But the movie is wrecked by Driver confessing to Affleck that, yeah, sure, I raped her, rather than lying and thus keeping things ambiguous. I suspect that feminist Nicole Holofcener kept the screenplay kind of lowbrow and moralistic, while Damon and Affleck tried not fully successfully to liberate it.
The other problem is that Damon’s haircut and beard style are so moronic looking, a combination of mullet and neck-beard, like a cross-between golfer John Daly and slugger Kyle Schwarber, that it’s hard to take his character seriously.
In contrast, Driver, who is normally a pretty odd-looking fellow, would make a fine Cyrano de Bergerac.
In the end, though, Damon’s character proves himself, unstylish and unintelligent as he may be, a devoted husband.
The lack of ambiguity ruins an otherwise good movie’s chance for greatness. The whole point of the Rashomon structure is that people disagree over what happened. But in the #MeToo age nobody is allowed to disagree, so The Last Duel is duller than it need be.
Despite these flaws, it’s quite a good film. After all these years, Sir Ridley Scott is quite adept at making movies.
