True Grit

Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of the 1969 classic starring John Wayne about revenge. Straightforward and unpretentious, this is the Coen brothers most traditional film yet. That’s both a good and a bad thing . Rooted firmly in classic storytelling conventions, its old fashioned sentiment is comforting. However it isn’t particularly memorable or as innovative as their best efforts. The ending is even anticlimactic after all the buildup we’ve witnessed beforehand. Conventional western’s highlight is the feature debut of actress Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, the girl out to avenge her father’s death. She perfectly captures the tough, precocious, no nonsense teen, speaking her lines with perfect diction and clarity. She is self assured and precise and she makes the movie. John Wayne may have been the attention grabber in the original, but she is without question the centerpiece here.