MOVIE REVIEW: True Grit (2010)

True Grit is a riveting love letter from the Coen Brothers to Golden Age-Hollywood westerns. Thought to have been a remake of the critically acclaimed John Wayne Oscar winner from 40 years earlier; from what I read apparently, the Coens went back to the original source material and based their screenplay more faithfully on the novel. Therefore, True Grit is not intentionally a "remake", nor do I think Jeff Bridges is playing off of John Wayne, either. This is a Coen Brothers imagining of a well-told story, which services their talents quite nicely.

In the American West of 1877, feisty fourteen year-old Mattie Ross enlists a rough U.S. Marshall named Rooster Cogburn to track down Tom Chaney, an employee of her father who murdered and robbed him in cold blood. Cogburn initailly refuses but agrees when Ross convinces him that his enduring quality of having "True Grit" is perfectly suitable for tracking Chaney down. They set off on an adventure that forms the real heart of the story, and transports the audience on a journey that wonderfully recaptures the rugged, minimalistic atmosphere of yesteryear western films blended with the Coen Brothers' penchant for vivid but engaging characters and surprisingly frequent but effective moments of deadpan and dark humor. For me, this was an unexpected and welcome touch from the Coens after the bland and aimless A Serious Man left a bad taste in my mouth.

Jeff Bridges is outstanding in his own rendition of Rooster Cogburn. Again, while I have yet to see the original, I believe it would be unfair to draw comparison. Plus, I've seen The Duke act, and I'm confident that his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn is in an entirely different league from Bridges' interpretation. Here, Cogburn is a crusty, swaggering anti-hero with a taste for whisky that exudes the same bumbling appeal that Bridges gave The Dude in The Big Lebowski. One wonders if Bridges' Cogburn was descended from Jack Sparrow, given his charming clumsiness but endless resourcefulness that gives him the drive to do his job better than anyone else. I consider Bridges portrayal of Cogburn to be one of my favorite characters of 2010, and I really hope he locks another Academy Award nomination for his role,

Supporting Bridges in the stellar acting department are Matt Damon as the stubborn Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who's reluctant entanglement with Ross and Cogburn makes for some interesting character dynamics. Hailee Steinfeld makes her big break as Mattie Ross, and while I'm not quite sure she steals the show as much as Bridges did, her presence and performance are both strong for a young actress of her relatively ingenue status in Hollywood. The fast-talking, smart-as-a-whip young lady who manages to outwit her male "superiors" has become somewhat of a stock character since the days of Tatum O'Neil in Paper Moon. I don't believe this is Steinfeld's Academy Award-winning role, but I do think True Grit will open a lot of promising doors for her hopefully optimistic career.

True Grit may not live up to the expectations of overly-sentimental lovers of the original version, but the Coens have crafted their version with a careful hand. Thanks to the wonderfully charismatic cast and detailed production design, their vision is amplified to echelons that I would hope appeal to even the snobbiest of film critics. While it also isn't the most emotionally engrossing of films either, it does the western genre excellent justice, and that's something cinema has not seen very frequently in the new millenium.

9/10

Peace,
- Jon