The Truth of This Grit Was Somewhat In Question

It is not to say that this movie was bad, only that it did not hold up its own end of the bargain. When I entered the film house to view this movie I thought I was going to be watching a revenge western, something akin to the smushing together of No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. There were many high quality actors billed to the film, and the story looked to be compelling. However, as more time bore on, especially the time that took place  at the end of the movie, I hitched up my pants in quiet confusion and left the theatre with a befuddled look upon my face.

There is good acting, do not get me wrong, Jeff Bridges either remained in a state of intoxication throughout the whole film or an incredibly good actor. Matt Damon far from his days as a gifted janitor strikes a unique balance of manly feminine charm as a Texas Ranger and seems to have an unspoken affinity for the other star of the picture, a fourteen year old spitfire. This odd relationship takes an odd route through the course of the film and results in many curious endeavors, most notably a spanking LaBouef (Damon) may have taken a mite too much pleasure in. The pint sized heroine, Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) who is merely trying to avenge her fathers death, looks for brawn for hire in the town where he father was murdered, and settles on a mean marshall (Bridges) only to discover that there is another man already on the job. This unlikely pairing, remains unlikely because the two gentlemen quickly discover they cannot ride together and split up to pursue the same goal separately, a fellow named Tom Chaney (played by Josh Brolin, second only to the villain he played in 2008 in the film W.).

Mattie of course imposes herself onto the self-proclaimed lone wolf Marshall, Rooster Cogburn, for what seems like the umpteenth time she has asserted her will and gotten her way in the film. Her bossy way of speaking without contractions (that second descriptor applies to everyone in the film) becomes slightly endearing as time passes, but in the beginning, merely paints her as an unlikable and annoying child whom has too high an opinion of her own smarts and too low a supply of adults to put her in her place.

The journey to find Tom Chaney is an interesting one, full of the deep woodsy confessions that only being alone with others in the outdoors can extract from a man. Some particular scenes of violence emerge, of a caliber I was not anticipating. There is the murder of two men in a cabin and also the discovery and later cutting down of a hanged man in a tree. The three characters after Chaney; Mattie, Rooster and LaBouef act like stubborn tributaries, constantly coming together and separating only to come together once more in their shared pursuit.

At the conclusion of this venture, an outcome of which I will not divulge, the movie then fastforwards many years into the future and concludes with a jarring last scene, that like the rare cross-germinated plum on an apple tree, simply did not fit in. Upon his invitation, a much older Mattie Ross, who shares little to no physical features with her portrayed childhood self, goes to visit the old Marshall in his new home, the traveling circus, where he performs feats of bravado for strangers and money. Abruptly, she is told that he is dead. She visits his grave and has a brief overview of her life, mostly that she has chosen to remain unmarried, then the audience is greeted by the scrolling of the credits. This odd encapsulation in my mind does much to negate and obfuscate the work that the previous two hours of action did, and leaves the viewer in, as aforementioned, somewhat of a befuddled state. Maybe the light of this Coen genius will shine on me in the future and I will awake to the cinematic glory that this movie has been hailed as, but for the time being, I will say that I did not care for the direction of the film, nor for its ending. However I have much respect for the participant parties and did enjoy myself for the greater middle portion of the movie.