: True Grit
What a fantastic film! There are so many things that make this amazing, but the best is the language: every line is poetry. I mean that most literally. What’s amazing, though, is that even when the most coarse and illiterate criminal low-life speaks poetry in this film it still feels utterly natural and normal, the way such a person would actually speak. I have no idea if they actually spoke so colorfully in the Old West, but I love listening to it. Just wonderful. (My favorite sequence was when the character LaBeef was arguing with the girl and tries to flatter her by saying how he’d originally considered kissing her, but now that she was being such a brat he was considering switching her instead; she responds with a haughty, “Either option would be equally unpleasant.”) The film itself is an incredible story about a tough fourteen-year-old girl out to hunt down the man who murdered her father. I never saw the first film or read the book (sadly the novel isn’t available on Kindle, which is profoundly stupid), so I can’t comment on the differences, but this version is magical. The casting is superb, with everyone utterly convincing in their roles (I barely recognized Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges, as “Rooster” Cogburn, is in the role he was born to play). The young girl is great (though I think it could be more the role than her acting). I really hope this wins a boatload of Oscars. It’s a film everyone, especially young women, need to see. Though it’s a Western, it isn’t that violent: there’s really only one scene of close-up violence and though that’s pretty intense, it gives the film much needed sobering reality. (It’s a critical scene where the girl realizes the true cost of her quest.)
The only bummer for me was the theatre I was at screwed up the airing of the film and so I missed the first few minutes (I did get a free movie ticket, but I’d give that up in a second to see the parts I missed). Just a joy from beginning to end.
Topic: [/movie] |
