When the movie opens it looks gritty and dusty – just the way an old western should. Maybe that’s because the writer/directors Ethan & Joel Coen are doing a remake of the classic John Wayne film based on the 1968 novel by Charles Portis. The story follows Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges in the John Wayne role), who is hired by a 14-year-old girl, Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld), to find the man who shot her daddy dead. The townsfolk onscreen are as intriguingly gritty and dusty as the landscape – they make you think, “I’d love to be a casting director for a Coen Brothers film!” Texas Ranger LeBoeuf, comically pronounced “La Beef” (Matt Damon), soon joins the manhunt, and Damon’s performance makes you think he’s waited his entire life to play this earnest cowboy (though he doesn’t sing the song “True Grit,” which received a Best Original Song Oscar nomination back in the 1969 original.) Josh Brolin portrays Tom Chaney, the bad-ass killer cowboy, though Brolin’s never quite bad-ass believable enough. Speaking of Brolin, this isn’t No Country For Old Men – it’s lighter, sillier, and more slapstick, without the earlier Coen movie’s air of all-encompassing dread. Young Steinfeld is incredible to listen to as she rattles off her baroque dialogue, but that mightbe the problem…her twisty lines sound recited. She’s a good l’il child star, but Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon she ain’t. The movie marks a reunion for the Coens and Bridges, the first time he’s worked with the duo since he played “The Dude” in their cult classic The Big Lebowski twelve years ago.You may not understand a word Bridges mumbles, but I’m not sure it matters. He’s a natural in these drunken, slobbering roles. (Remember last year’s Oscar win for Crazy Heart?) His performance here isn’t Oscar proof, but it’s definitely at least 80 proof. Three Tiaras
