As it usually happens with me, every time I get excited about watching a film, it turns out to be pretty shit. True Grit is a great example of a film that has a better title than the contents of the film itself. With a cast of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, one would think this could actually be a decent “gritty” western. But sadly it fails to deliver on anything, except perhaps for the performance of young Hailee Steinfeld, whom played her character quite convincingly and carries the film pretty much on her own.
Throughout the entire film, I did not once think any of the main cast were in danger, there is no such tension built anywhere throughout the entire film. It pretty much flows at one pace – medium. There is no chemistry between the characters on-screen, perhaps with a little exception between Rooster Cogburn (Bridges)and Mattie Ross (Steinfeld), and even that is on the very surface and goes no deeper. Labeouf (Damon) is pretty much non-existent throughout the entire film, albeit making a cameo towards the end.
Whilst the actual shoot-outs may actually be a more realistic portrayal of how things went, they were short and brief and uninteresting on the whole.
The whole film moves too slowly to make it exciting and not slow enough at times to make it interesting. Had it not been for the A list of actors on the list, I probably wouldn’t have watched this in the first place, and now that I have, I wish I hadn’t at all.
Screens of probably the best scenes in the film. Don’t waste your time watching it.
bill
June 9, 2011
Really I’m the first one? I agree this film did not deliver.