The precocious Mattie is a particular problem, her hyperactive patter awkwardly recalling that of Nicolas Cage's H.I. Cogburn, Mattie, and La Boeuf are all inveterate talkers, and hardly a minute goes by without the airing of some boast, dispute, or complaint. The problem is that while the former is in gorgeous evidence, the latter are nowhere to be found.
There are heavy echoes of Unforgiven, of Lonesome Dove, and of the countless Westerns they were themselves echoing.Īfter the triumph of No Country for Old Men, the Coens would seem a perfect match for such material: for the stark, unforgiving expanses of the Old West and the laconic antiheroes who prowled it. But in classic Western tradition, the tale is largely a journey from point A to point B, from crime to punishment. They encounter the typical obstacles along the way: snappish snakes, unforgiving elements, and a passel of auxiliary desperadoes (including Barry Pepper, whose small but excellent performance-in a role played by Robert Duvall in the original-is bested only by that of the makeup technician responsible for his terrifyingly snaggled dentition). They are intermittently accompanied in their vengeful endeavor by an epicene Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (Matt Damon), who wishes to see Chaney hanged for an unrelated infraction. Mattie also demands, improbably but immovably, that she accompany Cogburn on the mission.
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It is perhaps fitting, then, that True Grit lies squarely between these two poles of their career: a fine but middling production by the duo's elevated standards. True Grit is also, arguably, the Coens' second Western, following 2007's No Country for Old Men-by general consensus, their finest work. The first, The Ladykillers (a noisy reimagining of the understated 1955 Ealing Studios comedy), was by almost any reasonable account the brothers' worst film. Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit is their second remake of a classic film.