TRUE GRIT: not quite the real deal

It's tough to judge this new version of TRUE GRIT solely on its own merits. The John Wayne original is so vividly imprinted on my memory that it's impossible not to compare the two, and each time I do it's the Coen Brothers' production that is found wanting.

Not because TRUE GRIT 2010 is a bad film. It's not. It's actually pretty good and I can see it picking up a fair few Oscar nominations, but it's not the real deal and here's why.
Jeff Bridges is a very talented actor but he's no John Wayne. While Bridges plays Marshal Rooster Cogburn, Wayne was Cogburn. Bridges undoubtedly has greater range than Wayne as an actor but there's nothing naturalistic about his portrayal. He's playing a part complete with scruffy beard, dirty clothes and questionable personal habits. He's putting on the voice and adopting a certain manner of speaking (almost unintelligible) and style of walking. It's clearly Bridges playing a part.

Wayne, in contrast, is playing himself, or that's what he appears to be doing since by 1969 when the original TRUE GRIT was released, Wayne had played cowboys in so many Westerns that the genre was synonymous with him. This association between the actor and his roles was cemented by his off-screen persona. In real life Wayne espoused the same values and behaviours as his on-screen characters. As a result his Rooster Cogburn appeared to be interchangeable with his real self. The character was  a one-eyed version of Wayne. Where Wayne was a legend. who portrayed Cogburn as a myth, Bridges is an actor who plays the character as a man.
However, even with these reservations, I must admit that I enjoyed this new version of TRUE GRIT. There's a surprising amount of humour in this retelling of the story about Mattie Ross, the determined and stubborn 14 year old girl who hires a dissolute US Marshal (Cogburn) to track down the man who's murdered her father. Partly this humour arises from Mattie's situation as the unlikely protagonist, ordering around men 3 or 4 times her age and getting the better of of oily businessmen who can't believe they're being bested by a teenage girl.
14 year old Hailee Steinfield, making her feature film debut as Mattie, is sensational.She brings a confidence and poise to her performance which allows the humour to arise naturally from the situation. There's nothing forced or fake about Mattie's character. She may have an intellect beyond her years but she doesn't mouth implausibly adult one-liners in the way that so many professional teenagers do on film and tv.
Cogburn's not the only bemused to find himself taking orders from her. Matt Damon as the windy and self-important Texas Ranger LaBoeuf is similarly taken down several pegs when he presumes to treat Mattie according to her age.
The Coen Brothers have always done their own thing when it comes to making movies and for the most part they've been pretty successful albeit in a limited kind of way. Judging from the box office returns it looks like TRUE GRIT may turn out to be the most financially successful of all. Whether it can drag itself clear of the giant shadow cast by Wayne's original to become a classic in its own right is another matter, and my sense it that it won't.