True Grit
☆☆☆and 1/2 Mediocre but has its moments


Well this is probably the single worst movie for me to do as my initial review and no not because it's a bad movie. It's an ok movie that would be great if it didn't have the dreaded affliction of being a part of Hollywood's recent trend of remaking movies which is something I absolutely hate.
You maybe asking yourself well then why did you go to see it then if you knew ahead of time that it's a remake?
The answer to that is simple. Because it's a Coen brothers movie. Plain and simple over the last twenty years those guys have been the best filmmakers in the business. So I gave this one the benefit of the doubt that if anybody could turn around the dreadful remake trend and make it something worthwhile it would be the Coens. Unfortunately I was wrong.
With a Coen brothers movie you always know that your going to get great casting, great writing, great cinematography, and some Coen quirkiness (just think of any moment from Raising Arizona) that makes their work so wholly original. However this does not always mean that you're going to get a great movie. Prior to No Country for Old Men I was honestly worried that the Coen film factory had slipped into mediocrity. Offerings like The Ladykillers (another remake) and Burn After Reading had me thinking "uh oh are we running out of ideas?" But they got back on track with No Country and when I heard they were re-doing True Grit I was enthusiastic because it's not only a great story but it was a genre that they had never tried. The Western.
And they almost pull it off. True Grit has all of the hallmarks of a Coen film. Great casting (especially Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn), great writing etc. but there is the unfortunate fact that this movie doesn't escape from the shadow of the remake syndrome. Yogi Bera once said "it's like deja vu all over again" and he might as well have been talking about this movie. It never really makes a full departure from the original. I was never a huge fan of the original and I'll come right out and say it:
John Wayne was a fine actor but calling his range limited is being generous. The guy was essentially the same person from movie to movie just the name of his character changed. When he won the Oscar for True Grit it was honestly a make up for the movie he should have won it for years prior The Searchers which was by far his greatest performance ever.
Flash forward 40 years and you have Jeff Bridges in the role and it's nothing short of brilliant but unfortunately for Jeff it had already been done. And more unfortunate still the same goes for all of the other roles. Matt Damon and Haley Steinfeld are very good but wholly unoriginal. How can they be? It's already been done before, not as well but done just the same and there's not a lot of original material here for them to work with in terms of making the roles their own. Still the movie does have it's moments and unfortunately for the other actors they all belong to Bridges.
His handling of the courtroom scenes are not only funny but a sadly poignant picture of how miserably bad our legal system was and still is 100 years later. His gruff, rambling, dialogue is decidedly Un-Duke and while sometimes hard to understand it is nonetheless very authentic and genuinely coming from his own interpretation of the character. Damon and Steinfeld on the other hand have less to work with. It is here where the Coens fail to inject some originality and give the characters a chance to break away from the original movie. When a fine actor like Matt Damon can't make me forget about Glen Campbell then something is wrong. And unfortunately for Steinfeld when Mattie is portrayed as an uptight, penny pinching, busybody by Kim Darby in 1969 and then is portrayed as an uptight, penny pinching busybody in 2010 well there's not a lot of room left for elaboration by the young actress.
But still this is not a bad movie and unlike it's fellow remakes it is a better movie. However like it's fellow remakes it does not distinguish itself as an original production and it is because of this that I have to give it 3 and 1/2 stars. Not quite mediocre and not quite good.
Better luck next time Coens and please get back to the business of making a "Coen Brothers Movie" as quickly as you can. Thanks.