As award season draws closer, the quality of films released becomes better and better. Films with a winter release date typically try to win adoration and Oscars by pandering to both critics and casual filmgoers alike.
There’s no doubt both camps were excited for the Coen brothers’ latest cinematic endeavor, True Grit, to dazzle them. Expectations were high after 2007’s highly successful No Country For Old Men, which took home the award for Best Picture.
Sadly, the Coens haven’t exactly struck gold again, but they have managed to make a movie that is, for what it is, entertaining.
True Grit follows the tenacious and serious Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a 14-year-old girl with a grudge. After her father is shot and killed by farmhand Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), she vows to get her retribution.
U.S. Marshall Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) aids her in her journey, and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) joins them, despite wanting to get Chaney for his own reasons.
While Damon feels like a tacked-on character, Steinfeld and Bridges are the film’s scene stealers. They occupy the most screen time together and, surprisingly, newcomer Steinfeld manages to keep up with Bridge’s spot-on portrayal of a drunken, scruffy western man with an equally impressive performance of her own. She makes Mattie instantly likable, between her tough-as-nails demeanor and her sharp wit.
The one major thing the film suffers from, though, is that there was really no need for it to be remade. The original film, released in 1969, featured the iconic John Wayne as Rooster. Wayne went on to win the Oscar that year for Best Actor, cementing his place in cinema history even further.
The point of a remake is to do something different with the original material — film it in a new, creative way with better cinematography, go deeper into the characters, change the storyline, and more.
True Grit doesn’t do any of these things. It’s a one-tone movie that, while entertaining, isn’t anything spectacular. The filming technique is basic, the writing is simply decent and the characters are one-dimensional.
The Coen brothers are an experienced directing duo, capable of making great films, as audiences have seen in the past. True Grit doesn’t do justice to their abilities, and is, at its core, a “just okay” film. There is no aspect of it that stands out or is sensational or memorable.
While it does its job and keeps your interest for two hours, it’s sadly a rental at best.