Oh no! Here comes another Hollywood hack remaking a classic that doesn’t need to be made. Whatever happened to the original stories that used to litter our cinemas? John Wayne must be rolling in his grave blah blah blah…etc etc.
If this is the dim view you take on The Coen Brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel of the same name, congratulations, you are an idiot. And not just any idiot, the kind of idiot who’s looking forward to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and that’s some thundering idiothole.
Anyway, True Grit stars 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross on a mission to hunt, find and kill Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who double crossed her father before kicking him off. Her mother is crippled by grief and the burden of looking after her young children so the wheelings and dealings are left to the scarily headstrong and efficient Mattie. She enquires about who can help her track down the elusive Chaney and chooses the gruff, drunken, awesomely named and not at all hygienic Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) from a short list.
Cogburn understandably refutes her and while staying at a boarding house with a loud as hell old lady, she bumps into Texas ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who is also trailing Chaney for a big payday.
Who will land Chaney first? Will Cogburn finally give into Ross’ demands and take the job? Will Hailee Steinfeld become a Jodie Foster/Natalie Portman or a Lindsay Lohan/early Drew Barrymore?
Only time will tell.
Thanks to the recent flurry of Oscar nods and it’s huge success at the US box office, True Grit hits our shores with an appropriate amount of fanfare, and rightly so.
For the most part this doesn’t feel like a Coen Brothers film as they’ve removed their usual style in order to stay true to the source material but that shouldn’t be taken as a negative.
Everything from the script to cinematography to costume design and acting is finely tuned and expertly paced. Steinfeld steals the show and provides a surprising amount of comedy when her quick witted ways that is followed through with Bridges doing a pretty good impression of a park-based drunk and Damon being an oh-so-slightly loveable idiot.
The laughs were not expected but were very well received.
So yes, True Grit is actually, and unsurprisingly, very good which is hugely annoying as everyone loves slagging off a remake.
Oh well, at least Yogi Bear is coming out soon.
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Spooky says
Whew, for a moment there I actually thought you were going to say it’s bad. Jeff Bridges did a great job with his part