In thinking about this movie in the context of the rest of the Coens' body of work, I decided that the they have an aptitude for some kind of cynical, next-gen Americana. While their movies are rarely celebratory, they're not exactly damning either. I think most artists (if not simply most people) have a conflicted relationship with the places they come from, and it's been a very rewarding experience watching the Coen Brothers explore theirs. They rarely set a movie in the same place, and they hop through time periods with each release. Their comedies are morbid, their dramas are darkly funny, and True Grit is really another jewel in their already extensive crown.
Like their other western (or I guess western-style) movies True Grit treats the brutal violence it features with the same cold indifference as the times it depicts. That, and casually meticulous attention to detail in everything from costumes and sets to accent, manner and vernacular lets you feel like you're watching the wild west firsthand. There's no disbelief to suspend. The Coen Brothers prioritize being immersive before quirky.
I was expecting Jeff Bridges' Rooster Cogburn to be the main character, but instead I was surprised to find the story focused entirely on the viewpoint of Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl on a single-minded quest to avenge her murdered father, and Rooster's the marshal she hires to find the killer. Mattie is a great addition to the list of memorable Coen Bros protagonists, played with a pragmatic dignity by Hallee Steinfeld who will probably get a lot of award buzz for her performance and be the next teenage art-house princess, now that we can safely call Ellen Page an adult. Mattie's an intelligent and determined character, and if she had been miscast the whole movie would've suffered severely. So she deserves whatever tiara they give her. Or beret, or whatever.
Joining Mattie and Rooster is Matt Damon's LaBoeuf, a Texas ranger with another bounty on the man they're after. It's nice to see in between films like Hereafter and The Adjustment Bureau that Damon finds the time to pick a script that doesn't totally blow. I think he's a good actor, but who the hell reads a plot summary for The Adjustment Bureau and thinks "Oh, yeah. That's for me"? I imagine he drunkenly confessed something to George Nolfi, and this is a blackmail payoff.
Now watch it be awesome. Won't my face be red. Though somehow I'm not that worried.
In between gunfights the film's pretty hilarious, and the exchanges between this party of three stand up to the high precedents the Coens have already set. They have a good mix of camaraderie and animosity.
Rounding out the cast are the outlaws Tom Chaney and Lucky Ned Pepper played by Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper respectively. For some inexplicable and unjustified reason, I always think that Josh Brolin is a one-trick pony, but every time I see him he's playing a vastly different character and doing it very well. When Chaney is first introduced in a photograph, I was expecting the same quiet badassery of No Country For Old Men's Llewellyn Moss, but he's far from it. I really have to stop short-changing him, he was awesome in Milk and American Gangster, too.
And of course there's a dozen support characters that someone will remind you of in a conversation five years from now, and you'll go: "Oh yeah, I loved that guy!"
On top of all that it's just a really good looking film, full of snow lightly falling on vast southern vistas to Carter Burwell's pretty good (it's no Fargo) soundtrack, but really that's all just gravy on some sweet delicious meat.
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