True Grit (2010)

Here's the thing about the Coen Brothers' True Grit: it's almost impossible to fault it, and yet somehow that's the problem. You sit there watching it, nodding along, thinking "yes, that's very good," and then you go home and forget about it. For a film made by two of the most distinctive directors working today, that's a strange kind of failure.

Let's be clear about what it gets right, because it gets a lot right. Roger Deakins shoots the frontier in this crisp, wintry light that makes every frame feel like a daguerreotype come to life. Carter Burwell's score hums with a mournful, hymn-like quality that suits the material perfectly. And the dialogue, drawn faithfully from Charles Portis's novel, has that particular Coen snap to it: formal, slightly archaic, drily funny in ways that keep sneaking up on you. On a purely technical level, this is an expertly assembled film.

Jeff Bridges is doing something interesting as Rooster Cogburn, a grizzled, half-blind, frequently drunk marshal dragged into a revenge mission by a determined fourteen-year-old. He mumbles and growls and lurches through scenes with complete physical commitment. But I'll be honest: he never made me forget John Wayne. Wayne's version was more theatrical, sure, more openly charismatic, and it won him his Oscar partly on charm rather than craft. But there was a roguish warmth to it that Bridges' interpretation keeps at arm's length. His Rooster is more authentically weathered, probably, but less alive somehow.

The real revelation, though, is Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. She was a teenager making her feature debut, and she carries the film's spine entirely on her own. Mattie is steely and precise and righteously furious, and Steinfeld plays all of that without ever tipping into precocity. The scenes where she negotiates, argues and outmanoeuvres grown men twice her age are genuinely joyful to watch. If anything, the film gets better every time the camera is on her.

So why only two and a half stars? Because good performances and gorgeous cinematography aren't enough on their own, not from this pair of directors. Think about what the Coens do when they're truly firing: the sustained dread of Fargo, the lurching, genre-bending strangeness of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, films that feel genuinely dangerous and alive and unpredictable. True Grit never feels dangerous. It's too respectful. Too tidy. The pacing drags in the middle stretches, the stakes feel oddly muted given the subject matter, and the whole production has a certain quality of careful, well-funded reverence that keeps you admiring it from a polite distance rather than getting pulled inside it.

It's the kind of film that I suspect the Coens could have made in their sleep, and maybe that's the issue. There are moments, particularly in the final act, where something rawer and more genuinely moving breaks through, and you catch a glimpse of what a truly great version of this story might have looked like. But then it tidies itself away again.

A good Western? Absolutely. Handsomely made, well-acted, and honourable to its source material. But the Coens have set their own bar too high for "handsomely made and honourable" to feel like enough. This is a museum piece. You admire it, you respect it, and then you walk on to the next exhibit.

Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2010  | Watched: 2026-02-16

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Paramount Plus · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema · Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Rent: JustWatch TV · Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: fuboTV · Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount Plus Essential · Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Rent: JustWatch TV · Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Ethan Coen: Burn After Reading (2008) · Barton Fink (1991) · Fargo (1996) · The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
More with Jeff Bridges: The Last Picture Show (1971) · Surf's Up (2007) · Crazy Heart (2009) · Hell or High Water (2016)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)