True Grit Reviews..

The Huffington Post December 26, 2010


True Grit Reviews. . . A western action film isn't your usual type of Christmas weekend film, but then again, this isn't your usual type of western, and the Coen Brothers aren't your usual type of directors, either. They took on adapting a 1968 novel by Charles Portis -- insisting it was a novel adaptation, not a remake of the 1969 big screen version that won John Wayne his only best actor Oscar -- and, with the help of some true talent, made a brand new legacy for 'True Grit.'

The western action flick mixes in a surprisingly high level of subtle comedy with its gritty realism to create a wild west all its own. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and precocious 14-year old newcomer Haliee Steinfeld star in this memorable adventure.

Synopsis:


Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (Bridges). Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon), who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.

Professional Reviews:
Matt Soergel, Florida Times-Union:


It's the best Western in years and one of the best movies of the year, a rousing adventure that's also sneakily comic, with humor that rises from the sharply drawn characters and the dialogue they spout. And how wonderfully they spout!

Ethan and Joel must have relished the chance to have Jeff Bridges, the Dude in their "Big Lebowski," give his ramshackle take on John Wayne's hard-drinking Rooster Cogburn. But you can also see what must have attracted them to the story at least as much: the words.



Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com:


Now, it's also true that the Coens are coming at this classic western yarn from a 21st-century perspective that might misleadingly be called "ironic," but it's better not to get hung up on that. Let's put it this way: Like most Coen films, "True Grit" works on multiple levels and will reward repeat viewings. It's an impressive widescreen spectacle set on the 19th-century American frontier and built around a memorably ferocious performance by 13-year-old Hailee Steinfeld.

Colin Colvert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune:


In "True Grit," the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful. Their love for traditional Wild West movies glows with a cinephile's breadth of knowledge and a fan's mad crushes. With dazzling performances by Jeff Bridges and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, awe-inspiring cinematography and the Coens' trademark moral paradoxes, it's sweet nostalgia, subtly shaded with melancholy and peppered with dashes of black satire.