True Grit

The Coen Brothers return to the Western genre following the success of 2008 academy award-winner, No Country for Old Men. Originally seen as a mere remake of the film that won John Wayne his only Oscar, the Coens insist that they were instead influenced by the 1968 Charles Portis novel that, in a middle-finger to masculine Western convention, places a young girl at the heart of the action. Our narrator, Mattie Ross, is a hard-nosed, street-smart teen hunting for the man who killed her father. She is aided on her quest by two experienced vigilantes: desperate for their man, and a share of the reward.

It is in many ways a slow burner, a sepia-tinged trawl through the American outback, punctuated by meticulously-crafted gunfights, and dialogue of rare colour and roller-coaster articulation. Jeff Bridges moves from Dude to Dude Ranch with his portrayal of the cankerous Marshall Rooster Cogburn, while a superb Matt Damon demonstrates spot-on comic timing as a proud Texas Ranger – the bureaucratic foil to Bridges’ loose cannon. Josh Brolin gives good menace as their murderous target.

Ultimately though this is Hailee Steinfeld’s film. Nominated for many a Best Supporting Actress awards, the fourteen year-old carries the film. Not since Leonardo Di Caprio’s revelatory turn in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape has a child actor looked so assured amongst such talented company. Lovably stubborn, perfectly-mannered, and with an intuitive understanding of the language of the time, Steinfeld emphatically invests her character with the ‘True Grit’ demanded by the film’s title.

Alex Riddle