Cinema Verdict Review: True Grit

True Grit

OPENING: 12/22/2010

STUDIO: Paramount Pictures

RUN TIME: 110 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Punishment comes one way or another.

Opening Statement
Henry Hathaway’s 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis’ True Grit was an exceptional western, offering actor John Wayne one of his most iconic roles (for which Wayne would win his one and only Academy Award). Despite that film’s many virtues, Joel and Ethan Coen have now turned in the rare remake that proves superior to its predecessor in almost every way.

Facts of the Case
14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is seeking revenge for the death of her father. The man responsible is the villainous Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men), and Mattie is determined to have him captured, sentenced and hanged (or simply shot on sight, if things work out that way). With some difficulty, she manages to hire U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges, Iron Man) for the job. Cogburn is a crass, aging, overweight drunk, but Mattie is impressed with his fearsome reputation and ability to get the job done. With the aid of a Texas Ranger named LaBouef (Matt Damon, The Bourne Identity), Rooster and Mattie hit the trail and attempt to bring Chaney to justice.

The Evidence
The Coens opened their bleak comedy A Serious Man with an intriguing quote: “Receive with simplicity all that happens to you.” It’s a perfectly appropriate yet enigmatic line that lingers over the film like an uncertain storm cloud. There’s a similarly well-chosen line which opens their adaptation of True Grit (this time taken from the book of Proverbs): “The wicked flee when none pursueth.” The second half of that verse reads, “but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” However, that section has been removed from the film. There’s precious little room for righteousness in the version of the west they have to offer.

In some ways, the film is a continuation of the cynicism the Coens have indulged in their recent cinematic efforts, as they offer the American west as a place in which villains are abundant and so-called heroes are only interested in financially profitable brands of justice. Mattie Ross believes herself to be righteous and certainly is bold as a lion, but even she is tainted by an unwavering desire for revenge. If you’ve seen the original film, you will recall a particularly striking scene involving some rattlesnakes. It always played as nothing more than an extra bit of harrowing adventure in that movie, but the Coens draw out the scene’s symbolic resonance: this journey has been toxic for our young protagonist’s soul.

Fascinating stuff, but True Grit is by no means a bleak journey of spiritual torment, nor is it entirely a cynical one. In fact, this is quite possibly the most blatantly entertaining movie the Coens have crafted since their previous collaboration with Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski). Their gift for deadpan comedy is on full display for much of the film, beginning with an early scene in which a hanging concludes with a grimly funny punch line. It’s one of those sublime scenes that manages to work so well on one level that it takes you a moment to realize how well it works on another. A scene midway through the film in which Mattie and Rooster encounter a bizarre dentist (Ed Corbin, Blue Sky) in the woods features is such a sublimely odd piece of unexpected comedy that I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

A good deal of the laughs come from the splendidly florid dialogue of Charles Portis (too little of which was taken advantage of in the original film). The highly stylized nature of the language may be a source of irritation for some viewers, but I suspect most will find it a pleasure to absorb. The Coens have adapted and fine-tuned lines from his book to maximum effect–it’s absolutely fascinating to simply listen to these people carry on a conversation.

Great as the John Wayne performance was in the original film, he was still playing a variation on “John Wayne.” Bridges quickly disappears inside the role of Rooster Cogburn, offering a gruffer, less flattering portrayal of the character that works better for the film’s purposes. You get the sense that this Rooster is just about shiftless enough to actually abandon Mattie. It’s hardly a conventional heroic role: in addition to stumbling around drunkenly and showing off an ungainly pot belly, Rooster is also depicted as a tiresome windbag. During his travels with Mattie, he rambles endlessly about whatever happens to be on his mind at the time, despite the fact that much of what he is saying is of very little interest to anyone other than himself. This guy can’t even manage the minor virtue of being the strong, silent type. By humbling Rooster Cogburn even more dramatically than the original film, the Coens transform his moments of nobility into something almost mythical.

Hailee Steinfeld is much less instantly adorable than Kim Darby in the role of Mattie Ross, but her performance is more impressive. Steinfeld’s confident rat-a-tat delivery makes her the ideal straight man in a film that frequently adopts the rhythms of a screwball comedy. Speaking of which, Matt Damon makes a surprisingly magnificent clown in his portrayal of LaBouef (amusingly pronounced “La-Beef”), bringing a giggle-inducing pomposity to a role that was flat-out boring in the hands of singer Glen Campbell. Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) mostly depict their villainous figures as near-cartoonish monsters, but the film grants them curious moments of humanity that further blur the lines between this tale’s heroes and villains.

Closing Statement
True Grit is a more straightforward, broadly accessible film than usual for the Coens, but nonetheless another triumph of filmmaking. They’ve taken a story that served as the inspiration for a very good film and turned it into a great one.

The Verdict
10/10

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