True West

Jeff Bridges shoots, drinks and snarls as The Coens stay reverent to the novel’s sparked up lingo

by Morgan P Salvo

Opening with a dead body, drizzling snow and a quote from the Old Testament ("The wicked flee when none pursueth"), it is clear that this True Grit is more than just a remake of the ingrained Western icon John Wayne vehicle. The Coen Brothers were more interested in staying reverent to the Charles Portis' original novel, telling the story from the young girl's perspective, and re-teaming with their No Country for Old Men producer Scott Rudin. This is the story of young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) who enlists the services of "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) a man with “true grit” to help her capture her father’s killer. Accompanied by Texas Ranger Le Beouf (Matt Damon) they all journey onward to bring her father's murderer (Josh Brolin) to justice or kill him, whichever comes first.

Although True Grit will not leave the lasting impression Fargo did, it does deliver on a grand scale. The Coen’s undeniable gift for words shines throughout. The Elizabethan theater chatter set forth here is totally reminiscent of HBO’S series Deadwood. The absolutely excellent dialogue evokes the same kind of weird speak that rings hilarious when deadpanned as in Raising Arizona and The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Casting Bridges in the Rooster Cogburn role was another stroke of the Coens’ ongoing genius. Move over Duke, the Dude is taking over. Bridges is an amazing treat to watch as the cantankerous drunken old one-eyed windbag. Dropping octaves and basically growling the whole movie, Bridges tops every performance of his to date. Brolin is hilarious as a kind of blundering murderous/mutant/retarded/outlaw. Damon’s LaBoeuf (humorously pronounced “luh-beef”) is probably the most unconvincing but that might be the directors’ take on the stiff semi-good guy/hero role or the curse of Glen Campbell (who stammered through the original role). Steinfeld is a force to be reckoned with; rattling off her dialogue proficiently (you can see why she was picked from 15,000 audition tapes).
There was a glaring error onscreen that I was not familiar with in Coen Country.
Mattie swims across a river on her horse totally drenched and arrives on the other side bone dry. Was this a conscious effort from these perfectionists to make a mistake as in older flicks to see if someone catches it? Are they messing with us in a new way here?
True Grit might rank somewhere with films like Assassination of Jesse James, Dead Man and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but what I left thinking was that this would make a great double bill paired with an early Bridges film called Bad Company as Cogburn could be easily his character Jake Rumsey “all growed up”.
With exec producer Spielberg onboard and a safe bet for X-mas family audiences, Grit plays out happy and nice, overall merely adequate, falling short of the high standards the brothers have set for themselves. Still Joel and Ethan deliver some of their iconic weirdness (like the guy in the skinned–bear suit) and for a PG-13 rating, actually manage to include some decent blood splattering. Everything looks great: the cinematography is deep-toned, the landscape beautiful, the characters colorful, but in the end it lacks the spunk it started with--- maybe that’s the essence of the novel. Straightforward yet disconcerting the Coens have made a Western, nothing more nothing less.
.
True Grit
Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, Hailee Steinfeld
Written & Directed By Joel and Ethan Coen
Rated PG-13
3 ½ stars