Ground’s too hard. Them men wanted a decent burial, they should have got themselves killed in summer.
Like most everyone who loves movies, I have a great admiration and respect for the Brothers Coen. Joel and Ethan are a rarity in the filmmaking world these days. Rather than make mega-commercial extravaganzas they create mostly off-beat character-driven stories in most every genre there is — and if there isn’t a genre that fits whatever the latest is they’re cooking up, they go right on ahead and create one of their own. Better still, these two multi-talented Oscar winners seem much more interested in creating a lasting cinematic legacy as opposed to changing the world or telling us how to vote. Not everything they create is universally accessible, but that has to do with the rhythm of a sometimes peculiar muse always in search of greatness, as opposed to a politically divisive approach to their signature way of telling a story. Which isn’t to say you won’t find large political and social themes at play in some of their best work. Those things are there and are usually what elevates the eccentric into something that sticks to the ribs.
But it’s also fair to say that both auteurs frequently seek to explore nihilism as a theme, the futility of life and living in a world without purpose. Though tonally different, most recently, “Burn Without After Reading,” the Academy Award-winning “No Country for Old Men,” and especially “A Serious Man,” delivered grim stories without any real hint of redemption or sympathy. Sometimes, as was the case with the magnificent “No Country,” this approach resonates; the whole point is in witnessing the power of the human spirit to fight its way through a cold, indifferent and harsh world like a flower through the crack of a sidewalk. But sometimes it doesn’t work and the end result is something cold, distant, and a little off-putting. “True Grit” is one of those times.
The pieces are all there. Who better to fill John Wayne’s shoes than a beloved Jeff Bridges whose already formidable charisma has only increased with middle age? The music score, photography, production design and direction are as impeccable as expected, and the supporting cast, most especially Hailee Stainfeld as Mattie Ross, the young girl who hires Bridges crusty, aging Marshal to avenge the murder of her father, are all top notch. But what’s missing is what resonates, an emotional heft promised to us when the story opens with a quote that raises our expectations…
You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.
…but never really pays off like it should.
In this surprisingly faithful remake of the 1969 Henry Hathaway classic which won Wayne a long overdue Oscar for Best Actor, the setting is 1880s Arkansas and the shockingly poised, mature, and willful 14-year-old Mattie Ross has hired Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to hunt down and bring to justice Tom Chaney for the murder of her father. More mercenary than marshal and more eager for violence than conversation, Cogburn reluctantly agrees but things suddenly become complicated when a Texas Ranger, LeBoeuf (Matt Damon), arrives on the scene. He has his own reasons for wanting Chaney which put him directly at odds with the vexing Mattie. Unfortunately for Rooster, a man who has obviously spent most of his life hiding from personal entanglements either in a bottle or on the back of a horse, he’s caught dead in the middle of all this.
With this conflict unresolved, the three set off into the stark plains to hunt their man and what follows are three very good performances, clever, though at times cleverly self-conscious dialogue, some exciting gunfights, an uneven but mostly well-paced story, but also an emotional disconnect both between the characters and the audience.
“True Grit” is arguably the Coen Brothers most accessible film to date and when you’re dealing with seasoned pros like those two, this is not something that happened by accident. But at the same time you can sense their not wanting to go too far emotionally, you can sense a fear of the kind of sentiment that made the original the kind of film that forty years on still reruns on television and is remembered with such affection.
Mattie and Rooster and LeBeouf are interesting characters played well by the actors who inhabit them, but there’s no real depth there. You never get a sense that they live any kind of emotional life even as the exposition fills in their respective back stories along the trail. Their connection between each other is equally surface. In the end, we’re told this shared adventure brought the three of them closer together, but it’s not a bond we in the audience feel in any way. Thematically, the story rings equally hollow.
This isn’t a fatal flaw. “True Grit” is entertaining and, at times, involving, suspenseful and humorous. Unfortunately, by accident or design, there’s much to admire but nothing that sticks to the ribs.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.