TRUE GRIT
4 out of 5 stars

boy, jeff bridges can ACT!!! and the little girl too!!! coen bros. did a GREAT job re-booting the western genre, and jeff bridges makes this one sooooo WORTHWHILE!!! ;) (can’t you tell that i liked it?)

so… why am i so amazed by the great jeff bridges playing a man’s man u.s. marshal in this western tale of vengeance and adventure? it’s because he plays such an interesting character like reuben “rooster” cogburn. so, who is u.s. marshal cogburn? well, he’s a drunk-ass, whose got one eye, has a mean temper, and has an even sharper tongue when it comes to testifying/defending his behavior at court. he’s hired by a 14 year old girl named mattie ross (newcomer hailee steinfeld) to bring in the man who killed her father in cold blood. (josh brolin plays tom chaney) they end up teaming up with a texas ranger named laboeuf (matt damon in a ridic cowboy outfit- i love his spurs tho!) to bring tom’s ass in, but laboeuf wants to collect the reward in TX since it’s much bigger… this is no bueno for mattie because she wants justice for herself and for her family. all three embark on their journey into what they called “indian nation”, and definitely run into some trouble while they track down the s-o-b that is tom chaney… :P

my guess is b/c this is a coen bros. production, the script is written in a really strange way…sort of shakespearian-like? a very peculiar way of speaking, but maybe that’s how they talked back in the day? not sure, but it sort of throws you off a bit… like i said, jeff bridges really NAILS the role of rooster cogburn down to every mannerism, and he plays so well with the little girl and matt damon! BRAVO! i really liked the spirit of this movie because it focuses on each character’s flaws and characteristics, and it’s really a well written and well acted movie. although, i’m not sure if the movie in itself would have compared well with the oscar contenders i.e. black swan or king’s speech just because this is a re-vamp, but jeff bridges definitely deserves some sort of award for this role. talk about an actor with true grit… you got it right here. ;)