Gritty

I saw the remake of True Grit this weekend by the Coen brothers with a helping hand by Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.

Jeff Bridges gives a remarkable rendition of Rooster Cogburn...he was born to play the part. My only criticism is that he could have been mistaken for "Bad" Blake in Crazy Heart. Different eras, but similar characters. John Wayne? not quite...but not too shabby.

Matt Damon accounted for Glen Campbell as Texas Ranger Laboeuf, but it was an odd assignment. Hardly on screen, he did little to distinguish himself in this film.

And speaking of scant face time, big name actor Josh Brolin took over as villain Tom Chaney but doesn't appear at all in the film until the last several scenes. Must be nice to have a budget to afford an actor like Brolin for so few minutes.

Barry Pepper (61, Saving Private Ryan), is one of my favorite actors and replaced for Robert Duvall as Lucky Ned Pepper. Again, such a waste for an actor so talented to play such a small role. However, his lines always pack a powerful hail of buckshot.

The star of the show is Hailee Steinfeld who plays Mattie Ross, and showed such incredible presence on camera it was hard to believe she was only 14. A far, far better performance than Kim Darby, who wasn't all that bad in the old version.

Some scene changes and twists kept it interesting, but some of the dialogue was repeated word for word from the original. Still in all, I'd recommend it and give it a solid 3 out of 4 stars.

Beats sitting at home and eating a corn dodger.