Pleasant surprises at the movie theater are always nice. Having seen a few trailers for the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Charles Portis's novel "True Grit", I assumed the film would be a gritty, hard-hitting Western in the vein of No Country for Old Men. While the Coens' take is definitely darker than Henry Hathaway's 1969 version starring John Wayne, it did manage to surprise me in quite a few ways.
Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld plays 14-year-old Mattie Ross, who hires drunken U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) to track down Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who killed her father.
The big story going into the movie seemed to be Bridges taking the proverbial reins from Wayne. Bridges is wonderful as Rooster Cogburn, but that wasn't what stuck out to me when I watched True Grit. It was Steinfeld's performance that made this movie worth watching. Even as a young actress performing in her first film, Steinfeld holds her own alongside Bridges and Damon. She expertly delivers her dialogue, and seems right at home taking on the challenging role of Mattie Ross. Though she may be receiving "Supporting Actress" nominations from a number of outlets, this is most certainly her movie.
That's not to say Bridges and Damon were disappointments here. In fact, the level of comedy they brought to True Grit was very unexpected for me. This is a laugh-out-loud funny movie. Many of the grittier-looking moments in the trailers were actually comedic in nature. Bridges acts appropriately drunken, and Damon brings a hilarious smugness to LaBoeuf, who certainly takes a great deal of pride in his status as a Texas Ranger. Both also manage to inject some much-needed heart into their characters, and it's from there that True Grit gains much of its depth.
I need to mention Brolin, if only for the reaction he drew from the audience with which I watched True Grit. We only saw one shot of him in the main trailers for the film, and his evil-eye glare made me worry that Tom Chaney would be portrayed as a typical, cliché Old West villain. Suffice to say, he isn't. The same goes for Barry Pepper, the leader of Chaney's gang. He does a wonderful job just the same.
Many have argued that a True Grit remake is an unnecessary endeavor. This is a worthy argument, especially considering the fact that John Wayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Cogburn. I've heard, however, that the Coens stick far closer to the source material. I watched the tail end of the original True Grit today, and the endings are indeed very, very different.
The fact is, we probably didn't need another True Grit, but the novel is acclaimed enough that a more faithful adaptation is tough to deny. The Coens continue to amaze me with their ability to bring their own style to movies based upon the work of others. This is arguably their most mainstream movie, it being a remake and all, but it's still unarguably their own.
Great true Westerns don't come along very often anymore. I'm happy to say, True Grit marks another return to form for the genre. I hate remakes as much as the next film nerd, but I'll see anything the Coen Brothers put to film. This time, they've given us their own take on a classic Western, and have come up gold. True Grit is a funny, well-acted, beautifully filmed entry into the brothers' filmography, and one that shouldn't be missed.
4.5 stars out of 5
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