TRUE GRIT (2010 - Cert 15)

January is always a bit of a busy time in film land. All the studios save their 'for your consideration' movies until that point to ensure they have the best chance possible to pick up the coveted golden statue. You had The King's Speech, Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Fighter and True Grit. I managed to see the first three but the others passed me by. The Fighter never really appealed to me, I sensed it was going to be the standard formulaic boxing pic, but True Grit, the Cohen Brothers' latest offering, that was one I really wanted to see and was gutted that it slipped out of the cinema without me getting to view it.

That is until the good old faithful Firmdale Film Club, this time the Charlotte Street Hotel, my first time there for both grub and films (both of which I heartily recommend).



This Wild West story of a 14 year old avenging her father's death with the help of a Texas Marshall and a drunk, one-eyed US Marshall was nominated for 10 Oscars earlier this year, including best film, best director, best actor (Jeff Bridges) and best supporting actress (Hailee Steinfeld), yet it didn't win any. One of the things I was most interested in was to see whether it was an inferior film and performances to the ultimate winners, or whether it was a case of the Cohen's hype diminishing after it's peak with No Country For Old Men.

Well the first thing to say is that it is 'very' Cohen Brothers. They were very quick to stress that this is not a remake of the old 1969 John Wayne film, it is more an adaptation, or a re imagining of the Charles Portis novel from which that film was adapted. I've not seen the old film or read the novel so I can't comment on where this film hails from, but what I can say is that it instantly feels like some of their other work, particularly No Country. However, it isn't just the dusty, desert settings that they both share. It's also the combination of humour, shock, realism and fear and the way that they hop between those particular feelings in the gradual pace of the film. The Coens create films where a scare is never far from a laugh, and you don't know whether to laugh or cringe at the violence taking place on screen. There are also some brilliantly executed visual elements that have that surrealism that is so often associated with the brothers, such as a man covered completely in bear skin, including head, riding slowly towards the camera, and icily, clinical and realistic violence such as the pause between a rifle being fired from distance and the bullet's impact on it's target. Make no mistake, this film feels real. People bleed and they are surrounded by death, trying to profit in any way they can in the death of others. It's a bleak and desolate Wild West, not an exciting Hollywood version.

The real mystery of the Oscars was why Steinfeld was nominated for best supporting actress when the the entire film hangs on her shoulders. Her Mattie Ross is incredible. The words that she speaks are strong, confrontational and determined, but these lines in the hands of a less talented actress would easily sound hollow and pointless. It's easy to write forceful words but to make them sound believable and powerful coming from the mouth of a 14 year old girl is a real achievement and one that Steinfeld will always have on her CV now. She is brilliant, negotiating with purpose, antagonising and shooting down men four times her age and twice her size. What makes it even more impressive is that as the film wears on, her character develops and the mask starts to slip, Steinfeld shows the vulnerability and the brittle will of this young girl, desperate for revenge, but also terrified of getting it.

She is very ably supported, yes supported, by Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for a performance that didn't have a patch on this. His role in Crazy Heart was dull and two-dimensional.  His Rooster Cogburn in this film is similar in delivery, growling drunkenly, hard to understand, but here is a turn as a character with real depth. At first glimpse he seems to be a bum, someone with barely any redeemable qualities, then the relationship with Mattie Ross grows and brings the best out of Cogburn. Ross does the same with Damon's Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf, another character that we shouldn't like, devious, cowardly and antagonistic. It's good to see Damon as something other than a good guy, he enjoys himself playing someone who has a nasty streak that we easily hate. Ross brings out a bravery in him that we hadn't seen before. Both Cogburn and LaBoeuf are real anti-heroes.

It's essentially a character film dressed up in the clothes of a chase movie. It's great to watch these people develop, especially in the hands of such fine actors. Going back to the chase element, any film like that needs a boogie man to hunt down, and in this instance it's Tom Chaney played by Josh Brolin. He doesn't get much screen time, but when he does it's a joy to watch his bad guy, a truly nasty piece of work. Stupid and violent is not a good combination, kind of an idiotic evil. He rounds off the superbly chosen cast nicely as the Coens prove their class once again.

I clearly love it, so why do I think it didn't pick up an Oscar? Well, I think it's a combination of the Academy wanting it to be someone else's 'turn' after No Country cleaned up the other year, and of a very strong field in the running in 2011. Films, directors, actors and actresses, this was really a bumper year. For True Grit to miss out is really no shameful thing as they all (the ones I've seen anyway) would have been worthy winners.