Review: True Grit (2010)

In today's society where entertainment now consists of "What can we recycle and make the most money off of", there are good adaptations and there are bad ones. The Coen Brother's take on True Grit is definitely not a bad one.

True to form, the Coen Brothers continue to startle us with surprisingly successful bounds into new genres, constantly expanding their horizons with every new film. The brothers take on Westerns with their remake of perhaps one of the most notable films in the genre- ever, and prove that there is nowhere they can't go.

With such a classic film,  the cast and crew couldn't have bigger boots to fill; however, one of the greatest things about the Coen Brothers is that they didn't try to fill them, instead, they fashioned their own pair. Now I do not know exactly how much originates itself from the book, but it is obvious that the Coens have put a little bit of themselves into this project, from their darkly humored script to intriguing camera shots, and it makes this film all the more fun.

The cast works magic in coming together to bring the Coens' script to life and speaking of bigs boots to fill, Jeff Bridges does a wonderful job in the role that won John Wayne his Oscar, with a hilarious accent to boot. Matt Damon gives another great preformance, providing a lot of the humor for the film. Josh Brolin, though brief his appearence may be, does a terrific job and makes every minute of his preformance enjoyable. These may be the three big names on the movie's poster, but it is Hailee Steinfeld who steals the show and should, at the very least, get the nomination.

However, when you compare True Grit to other great Coen films such as Fargo or No Country for Old Men, it doesn't shine as bright. The story, though not originally Coenesce, still feels a little exhausted even after all these years, which leads me to ask why the Coens picked this movie to remake in the first place. Even the witty banter between characters is sometimes hard to make out under all those raspy accents and overall, this film just seems to lack that Coen Brothers sheen.

Though not their best work, the Coen Brothers have successfully breathed new life into an old, western classic thus proving that even on an off day, their work can still go toe-to-toe with the best.

See it.