The Coen Brothers' "True Grit" is a very well made minor entertainment. Based on what the Coens have said in interviews, the movie was not intended as a remake of the 1969 film of the same name starring John Wayne, but rather as a new adaptation of the original novel by Charles Portis.
They have produced a very old-fashioned, superficial Western about a teenage girl who sets out on a quest to bring her father's murderer to justice. What sets it apart is its wittiness, even occasional zaniness. The girl seeks the assistance of two men who are 1885's equivalent of the Odd Couple. Rooster Cogburn is the slovenly, hard-drinking one; La Boeuf, pronounced, hilariously, "le beef," is the immaculate, conservative square. (Interestingly, Portis's novel and Neil Simon's play, "The Odd Couple," both appeared in 1968.) Jeff Bridges, as Cogburn, and Matt Damon, as La Boeuf, both approach the roles in a light, comical fashion, only occasionally suggesting deeper aspects to their characters.
Hailee Steinfeld, as the girl, is essentially the straight man, giving Bridges and Damon room to ham it up a bit. Steinfeld, only about 13 at the time of filming, exhibits the precocious strength and verbal dexterity of a young Jodie Foster or Tatum O'Neil, commanding the screen with almost as much aplomb as her well-experienced adult co-stars. Josh Brolin, playing the murderer they are tracking, has little screen time and doesn't offer much to the story. He tries to ham it up as well, but it doesn't come off as well.
The story is majestically filmed, with a traditionally sumptuous, epic-movie score, but there's something hollow about "True Grit." It's nice to see old-fashioned Hollywood craft in the service of an old-fashioned Western, but one doesn't leave the theater thinking about much. In a sense, this makes it the perfect movie for our time. It's big entertainment with little to think about. That about sums up 2010 in terms of moviegoers' tastes, no? Give me a big, beautiful nothing, and I'm happy.
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