Film Review: Joel & Ethan Coen - True Grit (America, 2010)

Joel and Ethan Coen – True Grit (2010)

The second foray into the Western genre for the Coen Brothers proves to be much more lighthearted and old-fashioned than their first, but also packs significantly less punch. While No Country for Old Men can be seen as a bleak meditation and a modern Western, True Grit is a very straightforward film, a classical throwback Western. It’s much better than the horribly cynical A Simple Man, their last outing (although the sublimely creepy dibbuk introduction sequence of that film might be one of the best things the brothers ever filmed and makes me wonder what they would do with something like The Golem by Gustav Meyrinck), or the empty and revoltingly stupid Burn After Reading.

By the end of the film I was surprised that it had taken a sudden and rather unexpected turn into classical Hollywood cliché when it tried to up the ante needlessly during what was already a tense resolution sequence. For a moment all the smart and skilled characterization was thrown out of the window to make the protagonists appear more heroic than was needed or simply to get them from one place to the other – it jarred with the rest of the movie, which was kept realistic and interesting by the three excellent leads.

I don’t know the John Wayne original, so I cannot comment on any departures in plot or character. Hailee Steinfeld is excellent as the street-smart fourteen year old Maddie Ross who sets out to find the murderer of her father by all means available, balancing effortlessly between preternatural wisdom and daring and childlike touches. A couple of scenes even seem to play subtly with her maturity and ripening sexuality, which considering that it is an American mainstream feature might not be entirely intended but is still engaging.

Jeff Bridges has a lot of fun with the role of grouchy Marshall Rooster Cogburn, who is kept well this side of realism and is more of an archetype than a true character. Still, few American actors can do this as well as him and he doesn’t slide into the Dude in a Western territory and chooses not to emulate the role that fused him and the Coen brothers together except in little details. Perhaps this is unavoidable, but it doesn’t distract.

Matt Damon plays it relatively safe, but competently so. The banter, with him usually ending up as the butt of the jokes, is often hilarious. He plays the thankless role of straight man with aplomb.

The most effective sequences are the surreal and often exceedingly funny parts for which the Coen brothers are rightly known. The hanged man and briefly afterwards the dentist in the crazed shamanic bear costume must rank as absolute highlights. The darkness is kept to a bearable minimum, mainly because of the absence of cynicism. I found A Simple Man which has zero violence to be so much harder to watch because of the total absence of anything resembling humanity. The actors of True Grit infuse the film with humanity and warmth and turn it into an exciting, if occasionally quirky, mainstream action Western which can almost be considered a family film. Nothing too exciting or daring, True Grit remains a serviceable fare.