True Grit

Going in to this movie, I did not have high expectations. In my eyes, it has quite a few things going against it: it's a western, a remake of a JOHN WAYNE (bleh!) movie, a Coen Brother's movie, and it has Jeff Bridges as that same guy from Crazy Heart. I normally don't like Coen Brothers movies, I really don't like John Wayne, and Jeff Bridges has been getting on my nerves. That being said, this movie was actually pretty good. It wasn't the typical weird, "I don't get it" Coen Brothers movie, so that was refreshing. I heard that the original movie was more about the John Wayne/Jeff Bridges character, but with the remake, they decided to make it more about all three of them, the girl in particular. Great move. I think the girl is a great character. She's a strong young woman who can fend for herself pretty well. I liked her a lot. I also liked Hailee Steinfeld. I thought she was really good for the part. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by Matt Damon. He was really good in this movie, and his character definitely brought some light to the film. I think that the Coen's could have really weirded out this movie, but they didn't, thankfully. They made some interesting choices as far as staying with the original. I can't be sure, seeing as how I haven't seen the original, but when Jeff Bridges is riding the girl to the doctor, they used a continuous shot with just the background changing. I could see it being like that in the original. It looked very old-timey. My mom didn't like that, but I thought it was a great tribute. I kind of like when things intentionally look old or fake. Overall, though, I don't really have much of an opinion of this movie, other than it surpassed my very low expectations. I don't think it will do very well at the Oscars either. It didn't get any Golden Globe nominations, and all of its competitors are just too good. In Entertainment Weekly this week, they predicted that Hailee Steinfeld will beat out Melissa Leo for best supporting actress. I think that is absolutely nuts. Hailee was good, but not better than Leo. Not by a long shot.