This is a film more notable for its portrait of a town and the performance of Jeff Bridges than it is for its story, which, when you stop to think about it, is pretty thin. The acting is good all round and some of the photography is beautifully evocative of the epic landscape except for the epilogue which seems to be shot on DV and was a lame ending anyway. But the film belongs to Jeff Bridges. Matt Damon is a useless appendage and Hailee Steinfeld, the ostensible centre of the film, acts very well but her character seems to learn nothing about herself, a fault of the story no doubt but frustrating all the same. The town is interesting to see in its detail and in its political structure, however, once we leave the town we are supposed to enter a mythic landscape but this is scuppered by the paucity of the story. The only epic constituent of the film is the character Jeff Bridges plays and his performance is the only real reason to watch the film. Barely recognisable under the beard, Bridges is the seen-it-all Rooster Cogburn is a lawman with no respect for the law, a cold blooded killer who risks his own life to save others, a showman who keeps to himself and a stranger to himself and his past. It would have been a much more fun to watch his story than this one.
Review of True Grit
