The Specialists

For those too young to remember, there used to be commercials for Life cereal featuring a finicky boy named Mikey. Mikey would be offered a bowl of Life and his brother would say “He won’t eat it; he hates everything!” Then, when Mikey silently dug into the cereal, his brother exclaimed “He likes it! Hey, Mikey!” (You can watch the drama unfold here.)

I’m afraid that with all of my grousing and negativity, I’m coming across like a Mikey. I’m really not a joyless curmudgeon, and I don’t want to give that impression, so I’m going to attempt to inject some positivity in the form of these “Hey, Mikey!” posts. There will still be vitriol (I have two fairly negative posts in the works even now), but I’m trying to dilute it.

This first installment will be my take on the new Coen brothers movie, True Grit, which lies outside the normally geeky territory that this site usually concerns itself with, but it’s the last movie I’ve seen, so…

The Coen brothers and Jeff Bridges are awesome individually, but when they get together, like peanut butter and chocolate, they are greater than the sum of their parts. I’ve never really been into westerns, but I hoped that True Grit would be like The Big Lebowski, only with less humor and more horses. I was not disappointed.

The story is simple. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a 14-year-old girl who wants to bring her father’s killer (Josh Brolin) to justice. When the local law fails her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find, Rooster Cogburn (Bridges). They are joined in the hunt by Texas ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon).

The performances are strong all around, especially the three protagonists, whose relationships are complex. This is not the stereotypical story of an adorable moppet who melts the icy heart of a tough old guy. Mattie, in her own way, is just as strong as Cogburn, and what develops between them is more like respect than affection.

I saw the movie with my wife and my parents, and despite our wildly varying tastes, we all liked it. My dad is a big fan of westerns in general and John Wayne in particular. He was concerned going in that he wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy the new True Grit because he’d reflexively compare it to Wayne’s 1969 version, but this proved not to be the case. The two movies are different enough that they don’t invite comparison. (The new movie is not a remake of the original, but a distinct adaptation of the Charles Portis novel.)

Like most Coen brothers movies, True Grit does a great job of establishing a mood. The old western setting is bleak and unforgiving. The action is unflinchingly violent. There is humor, but it is usually pretty dark. It’s clear from early on in the film that the ending may be satisfying, but it’s not likely to be happy. I was trying to avoid describing the movie as “gritty” (or worse, “truly gritty”), but I can’t think of a better adjective. In any case, it’s an excellent movie, and I whole-heartedly recommend it.