True Grit

Merry Christmas Everyone! In lieu of giving each reader a gift I decided to give a better gift…. my review on True Grit :D. Actually I wish I could have gotten this out sooner but the holidays makes procrastinators out of all of us.

Soooo….apparently I’m the only one who didn’t know that True Grit was a remake of a John Wayne movie. Please don’t judge, I’ve never really been into westerns. I just remember seeing the preview before The Social Network and thinking that “hey this might be worth my time”. Guess my gut-feeling was correct because the in-pour of critical reviews have been full of praises. So here I am while everyone flies over to see Little Fockers (which I will not be reviewing at any point, sorry). I noticed that most of the audience probably has a subscription to AARP but the twelve year old boy who sits right next to me…and decided to give his commentary throughout the movie with Dad. Lovely. Here’s to hoping that my commentary is a little bit more worthwhile (though the little guy’s dad might not think so).

            I have to say that I was very surprised by the tone of this movie, some points the film was even heart-warming. My background with westerns is tough cowboys and a lot of fast guns and talk. The main character, Mattie Ross, makes it hard not to love her even at her most annoying points. The pacing is actually very steady and takes time to fully tell the story of the leading lady. Mattie (played wonderfully by Hailee Steinfeld) is in search of the man, Tom Chaney, who killed her father in cold blood. Since Mattie’s father was killed in another town she knows that finding Chaney wouldn’t be on the tops of anyone’s list. So Mattie does what any other fourteen year old girl would do, hire a Federal Marshal to hunt him down. And Mattie makes sure she finds the most ruthless Marshal, the nasty one-eyed Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). I don’t know why but over the last couple of years I’ve just fallen more in love with Bridges (note: not a physical attraction). I love the bond that slowly forms between Rooster and Mattie. This becomes more interesting when the third wheel joins the group, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), whose been trying to bring Chaney to Justice for months. I know I might break some hearts but I’m not a Damon fan (save the musical bit he did with Sarah Silerman) and I thought he would be the downer. But lo and behold I loved his ridiculous character, maybe it was the facial hair and spurs.

            For those who think this will be a non-stop action ride you might want to reconsider. Not that I don’t think True Grit is well worth the money but there isn’t a lot of action, most of the gun-slinging is in the second half. But as I said before the pacing isn’t slow but the director just chose to concentrate on Mattie’s adventure. This was a wise decision because Mattie makes the audience care about Chaney and the outcome of the manhunt.

At the end of the day I’m glad that I headed with the AARP crowd to True Grit over Little Fockers. Little Fockers might have won at the Box Office but I’m pretty sure that I left True Grit more satisfied.