True Grit

Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a stubborn young gal who’s determined to bring her father’s killer – the coward Tom Chaney (Brolin) – to justice. She hires a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to venture into Indian territory in pursuit of Chaney. Rooster is reluctant to take the job, especially when Mattie insists on tagging along. But the two ultimately form a mutual respect that belies their somewhat caustic exchanges in the face of grave danger.

The pair is shadowed, and sometimes joined in their pursuit by a stalwart Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Damon) who wants to capture Chaney and return him to Texas to face justice for a different murder. Mattie, Rooster and LaBoeuf make for an interesting trio that could very well have starred in a very special episode of Little House on the Prairie if Laura Ingalls had to go after Pa’s killer. Just trying to put it all in perspective for ya.

John Wayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 version of True Grit, so Bridges had some big shoes to fill. I haven’t seen the original, but I suspect that Bridges put his own special stamp on the role, as did Steinfeld and Damon (trivia note: country crooner Glen Campbell played LaBoeuf in the original). Both movies are based on a novel by Charles Portis. This newest version from the I-tend-to-love-em-or-hate-em Coen Brothers is said to be more faithful to the book’s original dialogue. That could explain why the movie took me a while to get into. The first half hour or so kind of lumbered along. But once I got into it, I was hooked and engrossed by this quiet drama punctuated by moments of sardonic wit, gun battles, and unlikely camaraderie.

The movie is very good, but it’s not for everyone. The action is pretty low key and the dialogue is sometimes challenging in its authenticity. So if you’re looking for high-octane adventure – and don’t particularly like westerns- then True Grit may not be your cup of tea. I, however, liked it a lot. I also really liked Little House and The Big Valley.

A Serious Man chronicles the woes of one Larry Gopnik, a mild-mannered Jewish physics professor living in the mid-western suburbs in the late 1960s. Larry is surrounded by ungrateful, unlikeable characters and he is continually tested by their bad behavior and his bad luck. His wife is leaving him for a pompous neighbor; his teenage daughter is stealing money from his wallet to save for a nose job; his soon to be bar mitzvahed son is smoking pot and slacking off in Hebrew school; his unemployed and inept brother is living with him and hogging the bathroom to endlessly drain his sebaceous cyst; an anonymous letter-writer is trashing him to the tenure committee at the college and to top it all off the Columbia Record Club is harassing him about paying for albums his son ordered without his knowledge. Gopnik’s life is spiraling out of control and he seems unwilling or unable to do something to stop it. All he can do is ask “Why me?” So he consults three different Rabbis for guidance but they give him none. You just want to smack him and shout “Stand up for yourself man!”

I understand that the movie is supposed to be based on the Book of Job, but I for one did not find pleasure in watching Gopnik suffer… and suffer… and suffer… without questioning. It was frankly soul-sucking. And I’m not even going to talk about the weird Yiddish-language fable that opens the movie. I know some critics adored this film and obviously the Academy sees something in it. Perhaps I am not “serious” enough to get the humor in it? I see where they are going but I don’t want to go with them. The only nice thing I can say about it is that Michael Stuhlbarg did give an outstanding performance as the feckless Gopnik. Too bad I just couldn’t stand watching it.

If you are one of those people who just must see all of the Best Picture nominees, then well, I guess you must. For anyone else, I’d say don’t bother suffering through it.