“You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another. There is nothing free, except the grace of God.”

I am pretty unfamiliar with the Coen brothers, considering that the only other film of theirs that I’ve actually seen is No Country for Old Men. I didn’t really know what to expect going into True Grit, as I obviously hadn’t seen the original that this was remaking, but I expected it to be darker and grittier like No Country for Old Men, and it surprisingly really wasn’t at all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just something that I wasn’t expecting.

Anyways, the best thing about the Coen brothers’ rendition of True Grit is easily the bond between the two main characters, our central lead Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), and the supporting lead Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Essentially, the story is about Mattie, a fourteen-year-old whose father has just been murdered, hiring Rooster, a U.S. Marshal, to help her avenge her father’s death and find the killer. They very much have the somewhat tried and true “old mentor and young teenager in over their head” relationship, and that’s something that I’ll always find compelling. While Mattie is the lead character, Rooster is actually the one who undergoes the most change, which I thought was kind of neat. He’s not necessarily a bad person at the beginning of the story (though definitely morally gray), but he goes from this somewhat distant and hardcore man to someone who softens up a bit by the end, thanks to Mattie.

And since this is based on a pretty old story, the themes are unsurprisingly very decent and hopeful, which was, again, surprising, considering coming from the same people who made No Country for Old Men. While Mattie sets out to avenge her father’s death, it’s not really out of “revenge” or anger, but rather more so out of not only love and respect for her father, but also a sense of the man responsible getting justice for what he did. There’s also an element of grace in there, too, and I loved that about the movie. While I like No Country for Old Men, it’s very much a nihilistic film in nature.

The cinematography is really top-notch, and putting it into words doesn’t even really do it justice. I actually didn’t know who shot this while watching it, and was very unsurprised when I found out it was shot none other than by the man himself, Roger Deakins. You know, the man responsible for Shawshank, Prisoners, and perhaps the greatest looking movie ever, Blade Runner 2049. Most of this film is outside, so it’s even more impressive since the vast majority of the lighting is completely natural.

True Grit has also got to be one of the most violent PG-13 movies I’ve ever seen, and I don’t even know how it got past getting an R-rating. It almost literally shows everything, with very little camera cutaways when the gnarliest parts happen. I should probably mention that I rarely get grossed out when watching movies or shows, and I actually had to look away at a certain part (the “teeth” part for those who have seen the movie).

Despite the dynamic between Mattie and Rooster, the biggest thing holding True Grit down is actually Mattie herself. Hailee Steinfeld doesn’t give a necessarily bad performance, but her character is written to be very bland overall I would say. Even though the whole story revolves around her getting justice for her father’s death, she surprisingly doesn’t seem all that emotionally affected by it. The movie starts off not too long after he is killed, and she acts like nothing happened, at least when you look at her as if she were, well, a normal human being. Yes, she takes action, which clearly means she loved her father, but she also shows way more emotion towards a horse getting hurt, which I found incredibly odd. It just put me at an emotional distance from her.

Narratively speaking, I get that this was based off of an old story, but there is also literally nothing surprising about anything that happens throughout the runtime. As I said earlier, I admire the themes presented, but the story surrounding it is undeniably very generic and almost cliché to a point. I kept waiting for something to throw me off, and, well, it just didn’t really ever happen, and it felt like a very templated and paint-by-numbers story.

Also, why is Matt Damon here? He’s literally one of my favorite actors of all time, but his character really doesn’t impact anything that happens much at all, and didn’t feel needed at the end of the day, just distracting. Listen, I’ll never complain when you put one of my favorite actors in your movie, but please give them a role that is actually somewhat interesting. His character just shows up and leaves over and over again, and I don’t have a significant explanation as to why. He’s just there in the story for the few times it needs him.

True Grit certainly isn’t bad, and definitely ends on a high note, but I expected something much more interesting and elevated than what I got.