Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
12/27/10
Coen
Brothers Joel and Ethan have made fifteen films, and just about every frequent
moviegoer loves at least one to pieces and finds at least one to be unwatchably
horrid. A big reason why is that they do two entirely different kinds
of films: sparse, low-key thrillers like Miller's Crossing
and No Country for Old Men and outrageous
comedies built around insanely oversized characters who love the sound
of their own peculiar voices such as O Brother, Where Art Thou?
and The Big Lebowski. Ironically, their latest seems on paper
like it would bear their artistic signature less than its predecessors,
but in a fairly faithful remaking of True Grit, the brothers have
created what may be the seminal Coen movie because it is at once both films.
A dark, brooding Western filled with hilarious, utterly quotable characters,
Grit is driven, like all their best work, by sensational performances.
Jeff Bridges makes one of John Wayne's most famous roles utterly his own,
Matt Damon combines his goofball and heroic sides to better effect than
ever before, and young Hailee Steinfeld delivers an amazing breakout performance
as vengeful Mattie Ross. True Grit is a sort of comic companion
piece to Unforgiven, pondering the evil men feel compelled to do
to one another in sharper, clearer tones than previous Coen thrillers.
And for more casual moviegoers who don't know Joel Coen from Garfield
screenwriter Joel Cohen, it's a pretty crackerjack Western to boot,
and you don't get a lot of those anymore.
14-year-old
Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) has come to claim the body of her late father,
gunned down in an argument by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), who fled town with
absolutely no one in pursuit. He's gone to hide in Indian country,
and her only hope of getting an overworked set of US Marshals to pay attention
to the case is by offering a reward. She chooses to make that offer
to Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a one-eyed drunk who impresses her with
his reputation for gunning down his quarry at the first sign of trouble.
But there's another lawman looking to corral Chaney: Texas Ranger
LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) wants to collect a large reward forthcoming if the
killer is hanged in the Lone Star State. That's unthinkable to Mattie,
who's not all that interested in seeing him hang at all, but if he does
survive to go to trial, insists it must be for her father's murder.
But the three of them form an uneasy, on-again, off-again alliance to stalk
his trail through the rainy forest. Chaney might not be their biggest
problem, as he's currently riding with the deadly outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper
(Barry Pepper).
True
Grit's story is simple, which makes it a great framework upon which
to hang lots of memorable dialog (lifted straight by the Coens from Charles
Portis' 1968 novel), character scenes and meditation. The Coens say
a lot without really SAYING anything: nobody in the story feels the
slightest hesitation about blasting away at each other at every opportunity.
But by choosing to linger on the corpses of virtually every character who's
killed and including scenes like a memorably chilly bit where three very
different men meet the same end via the hangman's noose and a moody coda
set 25 years later, they spotlight the folly of a world where people both
casually and gleefully end each other's lives while time waits to claim
us all regardless. These themes run through much of the Coens work,
of course, best elaborated in Fargo and most overratedly in Country,
but they've never felt so sharp before; in some ways Grit is like
a summation of the brothers' previous films.
But
you don't have to give any of that a moment's thought to be delighted by
the characters. Mattie's a girl over a century before her time, having
memorized the law and able to use it to win any argument or justify pretty
much anything she wants to do. Steinfeld is pitch-perfect in the
role, so smart and determined but still only about 87% ready to actually
go out into the world and face the kind of men who'd actually take someone's
life. Labeouf (pronounced “LaBeef”) is an old-fashioned dandy, full
of grand pronouncements even when his tongue is almost completely severed.
Damon nails the absurdity of the man without ever losing the fact that
he's sincere and good at his job. As dashing and handsome as he's
always been, Brolin has really hit his stride in roles where he's more
than a little bit of a weasel, and Chaney is the antithesis of the Big
Bad you're expecting for the 90-odd minutes it takes to finally meet him.
Pepper, a more versatile actor than he gets credit for, handles the menace
as his deadly namesake, a man too good at being bad to have any illusions
about it. And look for Ed Corbin in a memorably bizarre scene as
a doctor/dentist who travels the countryside in a bear skin.
But
of course the movie belongs to Bridges, who shows about as much range as
you could imagine in the five-day period during which this and Tron:
Legacy were released. It's not that his approach to Rooster Cogburn
is all that different from Wayne's, it's just that he's willing to go farther
outside his own screen persona to get there and his character feels far
more real. He runs the gambit, both deadly and hilarious, and the
physical comedy chops he shows off are quite impressive: there's
a bit where he gets tangled up in his own coat while taking target practice
that's as funny as any bit of comic business I've seen this year.
The
stark cinematography by longtime Coen collaborator Roger Deakins mixes
with Carter Burwell's terrific score to give us a world that at once seems
like the real West and a movie West just as the film is comfortable both
as a mainstream Western and a very Coen experience. In that sense,
it may prove to be their film that reaches the broadest audience, ironic
since it's in a genre currently deemed commercial poison. But also
appropriate, because if you're only going to see one Coen Brothers movie,
you can't see one that delivers more Coen for your buck than True Grit. |
