With both The Fighter and Black Swan already generating wide critical acclaim, the strong praise surrounding True Grit only further illustrated that audiences were being spoiled with a surprisingly large number of high-quality films during the Holiday Movie Season. While I may not be the biggest fan of traditional Westerns, I’ve learned that when the Coen brothers make a film, it is to any movie fan’s benefit to pay attention. Between O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, and the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers have been responsible for some of my favorite films, so even though I had never seen John Wayne’s 1969 original performance, I was nevertheless excited for True Grit. In addition to the strong reputation of the directors, True Grit also benefited from a truly talented cast, which included the increasingly-popular Jeff Bridges, fan-favorite Matt Damon, and the often-underrated Josh Brolin (who clearly wanted to forget his last venture into the western genre, last summer’s disastrous Jonah Hex). With these credentials, it was clear that True Grit would appeal to both fans of the original and an entirely new and younger movie-going generation.
In retrospect, True Grit is a good film with strong acting, but I confess that I found myself slightly bored throughout. The trailers make it seem like True Grit is action-packed and filled with old-fashioned western violence, but the reality is that those “exciting” scenes only last a few minutes and appear largely towards the end of the two-hour story. Jeff Bridges and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld give the standout performances among the cast, but it’s unfair to label the other actors as underperforming when they only appear in a handful of scenes. Matt Damon’s role is relatively small, and even though Josh Brolin’s character is talked about almost the entire film, he only appears for about 10 minutes, if that, thereby making it seem like both talented actors were largely underused. In all likelihood, I probably didn’t like True Grit that much just because I’m not used to traditional Westerns, a formula that the film sticks to so closely that it limits the overall appeal as it clearly caters to older audiences.
For more information, please read the full review.
Overall Recommendation: Medium
