Comer Captivates As Damon Battles Driver in ‘The Last Duel’
Written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Nicole Holofcener, and directed by Ridley Scott, The Last Duel is based on the real-life story of the final officially sanctioned trial by combat in France. Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) are close friends who fought together in the Hundred Years War and have returned to their lives of nobility. While Carrouges, a knight, is known for bravery on the battlefield, he’s not particularly respected by liege lord Count Pierre d’Alençcon (Affleck), who much prefers the charming and clever squire, Le Gris. Carrouges grows increasingly jealous and frustrated as Le Gris is given accolades and admiration, eventually scoring himself a parcel of land that was originally meant for Carrouges.
The perpetually disrespected Carrouges marries Marguerite (Jodie Comer), the stunningly beautiful daughter of a disgraced nobleman who provides a huge dowry for the marriage. Wanting to flaunt his gorgeous wife, Carrouges introduces her to Le Gris, who immediately becomes infatuated with her. After returning home from another battle, Carrouges finds out that Marguerite has been viciously assaulted by Le Gris and vows to fight his former friend to the death to defend Marguerite’s honor and his own reputation.
The story is told from three perspectives (Carrouges, Le Gris, and finally Marguerite) and it’s no coincidence that the first two are from the POV of the men involved. This is the way a story like this is typically told. In a lot of historical fiction and fantasy, we see knights who live by chivalric code and fight for things like honor and reputation. These stories are frequently viewed from the eyes of the leading man, with female characters existing to be victims or trophies. The initial telling from Carrouges’ POV seems like the most traditional in that sense. He presents himself as the most honorable and the most unjustly disrespected guy in town. He’s a war hero, his gorgeous wife adores him, and he fights against the evil and corruption of Count Pierre, willing to lay his life on the line for honor and let God decide his fate.
Le Gris’ story is where things start to shift and the modern-day metaphor gets more obvious. He perceives himself as the most charming and desirable man in court. He knows he’s Count Pierre’s favorite, but he always tries to be loyal and respectful of Carrouges. He’s a womanizer who beds a different willing wench every night, but everything changes when he immediately falls in love with Marguerite. Surely if he feels this strongly about her, she must feel the same way about him, so her objections are really just about her wrestling with the guilt of adultery, right?
By the time we finally hear Marguerite’s side of the story, it’s very clear that despite the swords and armor, we’re really talking about the macho flexing and rape culture of today. Her story is presented as the absolute truth and while she might paint herself in a flattering light regarding things like managing a large estate, her perspective on the assault can be accepted as fact. We’ve seen men centering themselves in this story, but finally, we see from her eyes, which are really the only ones that matter in a situation like this. It’s no surprise that Damon and Affleck brought in co-screenwriter Holofcener to properly give us the female POV here.
Because of the three-narrative structure, the story is presented in a way to make the viewers like a jury, hearing from the prosecution, the defense, and the victim to form our own opinion—though the film is very direct and never presents the assault as murky or questionable. More fascinating than the incident itself is all the politics and drama surrounding this crime. We have two men in a tremendously patriarchal society having what amounts to a dick measuring contest about honor while the actual victim of this hideous crime is barely considered a person and threatened with torture and death if the all-male court thinks she’s making it all up. Hearing Carrouges decry that Le Gris has dishonored him by attacking Marguerite or that rape is considered a property crime and not a crime against a woman really hammers home how shitty things were for women in that time period, but also makes us think about how shitty things continue to be when it comes to sexual assault and reproductive autonomy today. In that sense, the film has more in common with something like Promising Young Woman than with a classic medieval tale.
At times, the metaphors can feel a bit too on the nose. In one scene, Marguerite witnesses a huge, black stallion breaking free of its restraints and mating with a mare, and they might as well turn to the camera and yell, “Do you get it? It’s like what’s happening to the characters!” In another scene, Marguerite wears a dress with a plunging neckline and is chastised by Carrouges for looking like a harlot. As pretty much everyone knows by now, the “what was she wearing?” defense is often brought up in sexual assault cases. These parallels don’t necessarily take away from the story, but they can occasionally feel like the film doesn’t have confidence that the audience will get what they’re trying to do without spelling it out.
As you would expect from actors of this caliber, the performances are excellent. Driver stays proving that he’s one of the greatest actors of this generation and surprisingly, Affleck steals more than a few scenes with his eccentric performance. Count Pierre is almost too contemporary for the story, but somehow it works. Of course, the bulk of the emotional work falls on Comer, who handles it flawlessly. She’s able to give us different versions of Marguerite depending on the narrator without dramatically changing her performance. By the time we get to the actual duel, we’re less interested in the two men fighting and more captivated by her reactions, knowing all the emotions behind her every expression.
Despite a rather drab color palette, the film is engaging, the actors are captivating, and the narrative structure keeps it interesting for the duration of the more than two and a half hour runtime.
