Movie Review: True Grit

The day after Christmas, Colleen and Frank and I went to see True Grit and it's awesome. Well, it's not like the action is so kick ass and the plot isn't necessarily all that interesting. Nothing in the movie will particularly surprise you, it's just that it is such a well done, pleasurable movie. Fantastic cinematography, acting and direction. A great Christmas movie that just barely gets sentimental without getting sappy. The score constantly plays instrumental and vocal versions of the hymn "Softly and Tenderly", with awesome shots of snowy night time skies. Perfect. In fact the movie opens and closes with some of the most beautifully shot scenes in any movie. Opening shot: a house at night lit be a street lamp while snowing. Shown from far away at first and slightly blurred by the snow ("Softly and Tenderly" playing) the scene looks pretty and quaint in the way of a Thomas Kinkade painting. As the camera gets closer you see a man is lying dead on the ground and a horse and rider ride quickly away. One of the final shots of the movie show beautiful closeups of a horseback riding scene through a starry night (again: "Softly and Tenderly") and it looks like a pretty dream. All of the actors are really terrific: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld and no one outshines the other, but Hailee Steinfeld who plays the tough 14 year old protagonist Mattie Ross is really great and as good as the whole movie was I'm sure it wouldn't have worked so well if the part of Mattie Ross wasn't played right, and she nailed it. It's really a flawless movie and I think the Coen Brothers are masters and the best at making artful movies with wide popular appeal. Now I really want to read some of Charles Portis's books because the dialog in the movie is so good and apparently repeated verbatim from the book. Now my only question is since the Coens have started doing literary adaptations with No Country For Old Men and now True Grit, when are they gonna get together with Elmore Leonard? They seem perfect for each other.