Review: True Grit
Joel and Ethan Coen make films that, love 'em or hate 'em, everyone loves to talk about. There's no question, Coen films are a polarizing force. They number among my favorite of all time (The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), my guilty pleasures (Fargo, A Serious Man), and some of my least favored (Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men) ... yet every one of these is an object of both critical acclaim and derision.
The Coens' latest film is True Grit, opening in theaters today. This retelling of the 1969 movie and the 1968 Charles Portis novel stands out as one that will be almost universally loved. Almost the entirety of the die-hard film-loving audience with which I attended Butt-Numb-a-Thon 12 chose it as their favorite selection. Westerns aren't my first love in film, but I will list the Coen brothers' True Grit among the best ever made.
True Grit hooks the audience from the very first scene with 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) holding her own in business dealings with men four times her age. The dialogue is electric, intense and in a perfectly convincing period dialect. The closest thing I've seen to this magic was the scene where Tom Hanks met Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2007's Charlie Wilson's War.
After putting her dead father's affairs in order, Mattie sets out to locate the toughest bounty hunter she can find, which in this town is Rooster Cogburn, the character only Jeff Bridges could play better than John Wayne. Yes, better than John Wayne. Wayne will always be the original tough guy, but to me he's the archetypical sheriff, too good and wholesome for this role. Bridges inhabits the Cogburn part like an old bear inhabits his skin. The evolution of the story between him and Mattie, from employee/employer to not-quite father/daughter, is the poignant core of True Grit.
The Coens stuck more closely to the details of the novel than the 1969 film, and that is a great strength. Why fix what isn't broke? Josh Brolin appears briefly as the murderous Tom Chaney (aka "trash") and plays slimy to the core, a snake that would kill a child to avoid his fate. Barry Pepper is almost unrecognizable in the makeup (and fake teeth) they used for his Lucky Ned Pepper. Pepper is perhaps the most frightening villian in the film, but he comes across as honorable in his own way.
Words are not enough to heap the deserved praise on Hailee Steinfeld's performance in this. While Cogburn and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) are vital, this is Mattie's story, and you get the impression if she had to, she would complete her mission without them. "True grit" refers as much to Mattie as to the quality she saw in Cogburn. Acting opposite names like Damon, Brolin, and Bridges, Steinfeld is unforgettable. She doesn't merely "hold her own;" she owns the screen. As the guns come out and bullets begin to fly, you start to forget that her character is only 14.
At the same time, you've grown to love the characters so much by the end of True Grit, the outcome will make you shed a tear for that ineffable might-have-been. That's the emotional sense you're left with as the credits roll: the longing to return to a great adventure, to revisit lost companions and again sit round the fire telling stories. I will gladly add this to my collection of favorites right next to O Brother, Where Art Thou?. This may top my list, as it has already for many others, as favorite film of the year.