I am the first to admit that I am not as big a fan of Joel and Ethan Coen-directed movies as most people are. While I did enjoy Fargo (1996) and A Single Man (2009), I wouldn’t say I liked Miller’s Crossing (1990) and Barton Fink (1991). While I thought No Country for Old Men was pretty good, it was not close to being the best movie from 2007. Then there are the other Coen-directed movies I would prefer to see. These include Burn After Reading (2008), The Ladykillers (2007), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), or O Brother, Where Art Though? (2000). I appreciate a good Western. Once True Grit was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, it became a no-brainer that I saw the movie, despite my reservations about the Coens.

True Grit is a remake of the 1969 movie of the same name. John Wayne starred as the lead and won his only Best Actor Academy Award Nomination for his role as US Marshall Rooster Cogburn. The remake stars Jeff Bridges (fresh off a 2009 Best Actor Academy Award Win for Crazy Heart) as Cogburn. In an eerie coincidence, Bridges was nominated in 2010 for a Best Actor Academy Award for playing a drunkard again. However, unlike his role as Bad Blake in 2009, Bridges’ Cogburn doesn’t allow his drinking to affect his job. Cogburn takes a no-nonsense approach as a US Marshall. He slurs his speech, smokes like a fiend, and drinks whiskey straight from the bottle. He wears a patch over his right eye, though we never learn why. He seems to care very little about anything other than drinking and smoking and seems to do his job so that he can support these two habits. He is straight to the point with his answers, sometimes to the end of being mean.

The story revolves around Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld in her debut performance) as a 14-year-old girl looking to avenge the murder of her father by a drifter named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin – No Country for Old Men, W.). The series of events leading to his murder is made known in the film’s opening sequence. Mattie learns that Cogburn has the best chance to capture Chaney. It becomes her mission not only to hire Cogburn but also to go with him on his mission to bring Chaney to justice. A Texas Ranger is already hunting Chaney named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon – Good Will Hunting, The Bourne Identity), a man who lacks Cogburn’s expertise but who is just as focused and not affected by alcohol and tobacco. The three form a team for an adventure through the backwoods of late 19th-century Arkansas in pursuit of Chaney.

While I didn’t like Damon as LaBoeuf, the rest of the cast had strong performances. Bridges and Steinfeld worked perfectly together, and while the screen time of Brolin and his gang’s leader, Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper – The Green Mile, *61), was minimal, both actors were highly effective in their roles. Brolin’s Chaney is both a killer and a coward at the same time. Pepper’s Pepper is grimy and ornery, perfect for the role.

While Steinfeld was the lead actor in the movie, she did not get nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, but rather a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination. Steinfeld will be rewarded by not having to go head to head against Natalie Portman (Black Swan) and will win the Best Supporting Actress role. An incapable Maddie Ross would have resulted in an ineffective movie, regardless of the other actors’ strengths. And while my initial thought was that True Grit was good but not good enough to be regarded as one of the ten best movies of 2010, I have re-evaluated my feelings about the film. It deserves a Best Picture Academy Award, but I still like it less than six of the other eight nominated movies I have seen. It was better than both Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right. Regardless of my feelings, however, there is no chance this movie tops The Social Network or The King’s Speech for Best Picture. Likewise, while Bridges was fantastic, Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) and Jessie Eisenberg (The Social Network) were better. And I cannot see the Coen brothers (Best Director Academy Award winners in 2007 for No Country for Old Men) beating out David Fincher (The Social Network) or Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) winning for Best Director.

Plot 10/10 (easy to understand, but what more faithful story is a story of avenging the murder of a family member)
Character Development 8/10 (watching Bridges’ character change from a heartless drunkard to a father-type figure is memorizing)
Character Chemistry 8.5/10 (there are scenes where you could cut the tension between Bridges and Damon with a knife)
Acting 8/10 (Bridges is brilliant. Steinfeld not only holds her own but matches Bridges and one-ups a miscast Damon)
Screenplay 8/10 (There are some great one-liners by Bridges. It’s impossible not to like him or to root for him, despite how much of a jerk he can seemingly be)
Directing 8.5/10 (The Coens have proven two years in a row now {A Single Man, 2009} that they don’t need to make a movie more complicated than it needs to be because they can
Cinematography 8.5/10 (brilliant shots of 1880 Arkansas)
Sound 8.5/10 (some sweet country music and sufficient periods of silence. Even the sound of gunshots seems more realistic than most movies)
Hook and Reel 7.5/10 (knowing that the girl is about to hire Bridges to track the man who killed her father is enough to capture most)
Universal Relevance 8/10 (as much as any Western can be, I presume)
83.5%