Cinema Snark: True Grit

I don't have as much to say about True Grit as I would have expected. This isn't a bad thing because I really liked the movie, but there's less to snark about (or gush over) than there often is. It's very well-written, -acted, -filmed, and -directed, but in a relatively quiet, determined way.

The spare approach to the story makes perfect sense, though. The story is narrated by Mattie Ross, a grown woman reminiscing about her youth--specifically, that one time she hired a drunk, one-eyed badass named "Rooster" to track down her father's killer. Fourteen-year-old Mattie is a no-nonsense girl with a sharp mind, an even sharper tongue, and a heaping helping of good old Protestant morality--and if the little bit we see of her adult life is any indication, she hasn't changed a bit. When you consider who's telling the story, the matter-of-fact tone and slow-but-steady pacing make perfect sense.

True Grit feels very Protestant, and (though it may seem surprising to some) I don't actually mean that in a bad way. It's actually quite immersive--Mattie's comments about whiskey leading to a life of debauchery and crime would be laughable if uttered today, but the ideas and worldviews of the characters help set the scene as much as the clothing and locations. The score helps immensely in this area, too (much as it did in O Brother, Where Art Thou), in large part because a large portion of it is based on old American hymn tunes. The whole movie has this fantastically stern, Old Testament feel to it: Mattie isn't pursuing her father's killer for anything as pedestrian as revenge; she wants Retribution, with a capital R. While Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon's characters may be motivated by money or pride, Mattie really only wants the killer to suffer righteous punishment at the end of a noose. True Grit is a serious film, flavored with the Coen Brothers' signature dry, dark humor and occasional bursts of visceral violence. In other words: it's really good.

Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross is awesome. Honestly, there's no other way I can say it. She's not an "action girl" who runs around kicking ass and maiming people for the hell of it, but what she actually does is so much cooler than that. If you piss this girl off, she will verbally bend you over her knee and beat you with her knowledge of the English language until you cry for your mother--without resorting to profanity, no less. And what's more? You will be hearing from her lawyer. This girl is my hero.

Jeff Bridges also plays the hell out of his role as Rooster Cogburn. He's an interesting foil to Mattie in that the two of them are polar opposites in everything except their massive balls (though in Mattie's case, the balls are metaphorical). Sure, he's a Federal Marshal (with a badass eye patch, no less), but the film makes it pretty clear that he's only on the "right" side of the law by some coincidence. He has something of a checkered past, has no qualms about killing people if he thinks they deserve it, and has a hell of a drinking problem. To Bridges' credit, his portrayal of Cogburn's alcoholism doesn't descend into parody; his gruff manner and bizarre behavior often produce laughs, but his drunkenness comes off more as pathetic than anything else. Hell, the other characters even comment on how dangerous it is: even at his best, Cogburn is aging, a little crazy, and prone to bursts of temper; the last thing they need is to get into a firefight that he's too drunk to win.

Matt Damon (a douche-y Texas Ranger named La Boeuf) and Josh Brolin (Tom Chaney, the murderer of Mattie's father) are both fun to watch in their supporting roles. Damon comes off as a narcissistic asshole for much of the first half of the movie, but eventually shows that there is more to his character than bravado, and that he's actually pretty handy with a gun. Brolin's part is surprisingly small, considering that the movie revolves around bringing him to justice, but the treatment of his character is actually one of the most interesting parts of the story:

Mattie calls him a coward and a half-wit early on, and she's really not kidding. Chaney is a spineless piece of low-life trash, and not very menacing at all for someone who is apparently the movie's main antagonist. Considering the tone and message of the rest of the movie, though, I'd say this is deliberate: such a spare, unadorned story needs an equally un-romanticized villain. Even if he were pure evil (which would just be stupid, seeing how the movie deliberately avoids moral absolutes and nestles itself deep in "shades of gray" territory), you'd have to admire his effectiveness (e.g. Ben Foster's character in 3:10 to Yuma)--but here, you don't even get that. Tom Chaney has no redeeming characteristics whatsoever, least of all being a badass. He's just pathetic.

The Coen Brothers do an excellent job, as always. To be honest, I find them to be two of the most interesting people in the field of modern storytelling. Beyond the fact that they're two minds working together more or less as a single creative unit, they've also displayed incredible versatility and dramatic range in their movies, dabbling in many different genres while still maintaining a very noticeable artistic and narrative identity. And let's face it: anyone who can be responsible for O Brother, Where Art Thou and No Country for Old Men is pretty damn awesome in my book. You can always tell when you're watching a Coen Brothers movie, whether it's a zany screwball comedy, a slice-of-life dramedy, or an action-drama, because all of their movies share a common soul. Hell, they're practically a genre in and of themselves.

True Grit is no exception. If you like the Coen Brothers, there's a damn good chance you'll like this. If your taste in Westerns runs more along the lines of Tombstone than Open Range, though, you might find True Grit a bit boring. This movie isn't about the violence, and it's not even really about the act of Retribution itself; it's about a little girl having the courage and stubbornness to enter the ugly, scary adult world.

And damned if it's not awesome to watch.