Movie Review - True Grit

Like pretty much everyone else I had pretty high hopes for this movie and it did not disappoint.  I really liked the Coen Brothers last three films: No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man.  But they all sort of left me with a sour taste in my mouth.  I think it's because they all seemed to be commenting on the randomness and entropy of life, with characters that are for the most part all out for themselves and stumble upon some crazy shit everywhere.  Even though that is fun to watch, for me it limits how engaged I feel with the characters and ultimately how much I enjoy the movie.   So it was pretty refreshing to see the Coens make a movie that had some clear direction and had characters that believed in something other than themselves.  

As usual for a Coen brothers movie it looked amazing.  The bleak setting of the wild west never looked better.  My favorite scene was when U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and his current employer, 14-year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), are wating to spring a trap on a gang of outlaws, one of which is believed to be Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man that murdered Mattie's dad.  First off, it is a beautiful scene with our heroes perched up-high in a moonlit canyon where down below sits a one-room shack with flickering light leaking through it's cracks and smoke rising from it's Chimney.  The tension is high because up until this point the audience and the characters have only heard about the outlaw Cheney and the gang he rides with and don't know what to expect.  Without describing it to death, it ends with the surprise entrance of good-guy Texas ranger Lebouf (Matt Damon), followed closely by the gang of outlaws.  Great climax to a perfectly set-up scene.

But as amazing as Bridges is in the role of the grizzled, run-down Marshall, and solid acting from Damon and Brolin, the 14-year old newcomer is by far the standout.  From the first scene she is perfectly believable in that role, and commands your attention the whole movie.  That was pretty damn risky for the Coens to have an unknown kid lead this movie, but boy did it pay off.

Great movie, and so far I think this edges out The Social Network for best movie of 2010.  But how the hell do you compare the Social Network with True Grit?  For me, True Grit was more fun, so it wins first prize (so far anyway).