True Grit (2010– 110mins) J. Bridges, M. Damon, H. Steinfeld

True Grit is the last of the Best Picture noms from this year that I had to watch. I had been really looking forward to seeing this one as not only was it supposed to be very good but also because Jeff Bridges has been on quite a run lately with movies. As you may or may not know it’s a remake of an old John Wayne movie in which Bridges plays the same part as the great Wayne played 40 years ago.

Bridges plays US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who has been recruited by a headstrong teenage girl named Mattie Ross (Steinfeld), to track down the man who killed her father. While out on the trail they encounter Texas Ranger Laboeuf (Damon), a very self assure Ranger who is trying to catch the same killer for the bounty and revenge of a different murder. The movie is obviously a western but aside from a few scenes of gunfights and action, it’s more about the journey then the destination. Steinfeld plays the young lady with such strength and stubborn determination that you believe she will go out on her own regardless of help to catch the killer herself. There is no fear and nothing childlike about her. I was so impressed with her that I think I might have her equal to or better then Amy Adams for whom I thought should win the best supporting actress from last year. Just a totally 100% impressive job by the 14 year old actress. As for the guys, obviously Bridges is spectacular as the gruff hardass Marshal. He was great but he still falls a bit short of the king himself Colin Firth. Damon on the other hand, while good at the character, is directed to be such a baffoon of a role that it really took away from the part for me. I liked it just fine but I don’t know if Damon was right for this part. I couldn’t help but feel that  there is a better actor who could portray a Texan enough to come across as patriotic for the state but not so much as seemingly a parody of one. Which brings me to my one beef, even if minor, about the movie…

I thoroughly enjoyed this film but I can’t help but feel it had too much comedy to it. This should be a western drama with some smattered laughs, but instead it’s almost more of a comedy drama with equal parts of each. I have to admit I have never seen the original but I doubt the tone was the same. It was so farcy at times (especially Laboeuf) that I have to blame it on the Coen’s themselves. It brought what should have been a hard nosed western to the same tone as a “Fargo”, or a “Burn After Reading”, both which have their signature Comedy-Drama feel to them. There is a time and a place for their type of movie making but a remake of a John Wayne western IMO is not it. I can’t help but think that as good as this was it could have been a bit better if Clint Eastwood was directing it instead, and potentially a different actor was pegged for the Texas Ranger Laboeuf.

Verdict–> Don’t let my ramblings of a mad man about the inclusion of comedy fool you. This was a great great movie. The performances by Steinfeld and Bridges alone are more then worth the price of admission. It’s a very high recommendation and IMO is in the top 5 of last year. Pick it up this weekend for an enjoyable watch!

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