I haven’t seen the 1969 John Wayne “True Grit,” so I can’t really put the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit” into that context or perspective. What I can do, however, is look at it as just another one of their movies that just happens to be a second film adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel. As it turns out, the movie fits in perfectly with all the rest of the Coen canon. After some of their high-brow humor hit a sour note for me, I’m glad to see them return to form in the kind of movie they are best cut out to make.
Everything moviegoers have come to love in the directing duo over the last quarter-century is on full display in “True Grit.” The nihilism, the bleakness, the dark humor, the biting dialogue, the crazy and three-dimensional characters are all there in full force. While it may not be the high point for the Coens, the movie is definitely an exclamation point on their careers thus far.
The truest grit of the movie belongs to 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a tenacious Southern girl who can talk fast enough to make your head spin around, drive one heck of a bargain, and make your jaw drop with her rugged tenacity. She’s looking for a way to avenge her father’s murderer, the lawless drunk Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Mattie looks to a U.S. Marshal that fits a similar description, the unreliable, uncomely Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges).
But she’s also not the only one hunting Chaney; Mattie also has to contend with LaBeouf (Matt Damon), a Texas Ranger with a voice uncannily similar to Matthew McConaughey’s and so dead-set on doing his job that he’s about as big of a joke as Matthew McConaughey. LaBeouf and Cogburn assume they are a two-man searching party, but Mattie, insistent on seeing justice done herself, tags along much to their chagrin. The three cross into the Indian Territory, enduring much lifeless terrain on Cheney’s trail.
Marshall and the Movies 
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