True Grit (2010) - film review

The Coen Brothers’ True Grit is as stubborn as a mule. It’ll say what it wants to say in the manner in which it chooses and it’ll take it’s time about it. The film is an exercise in faithful adaptation, not in that I know because I’ve read the original novel but in that it’s in no way adapted for a modern cinema audience and makes no attempt to update vocal intonations or iron out plot longueurs and needless detours that other adaptations would surely trim, alter or cut altogether.

It’s admirably re-watchable and has been the first film that I’ve seen in some years that I can imagine myself enjoying even on the tenth viewing.

As always with the Coen Brother’s the filmmaking is flawless but the standout craft on display in True Grit is the convincingly 19th century performances. The ongoing problem I have with period pieces is that the actors all compose themselves as if they’re in the 21st century and will, after a long day’s shooting on set, drive home in their cars and spend the night on the internet or watching television. But not for a second here do you believe that Jeff Bridges’ gnarled Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon’s proud but flawed LeBoeuf or Hailee Steinfeld’s stern and plucky Mattie Ross have such modern conveniences to while away the time… the Coen Brothers present you with the world as it was some 150 years ago and never do you doubt it.

Many other filmmakers might have been concerned about the outdated attitudes towards race and sex in the story and modernised many of the encounters, but they would not have been faithful. The Coen’s keep in LeBoeuf’s obvious attraction to an underage girl and makes it poignant rather than sinister and the various knocks, falls and scrapes the girl herself is subject to are not papered over or pulled back from. These are hard times and it’s people are even harder.

The dialogue in True Grit is sometimes indecipherably old fashioned and delivered too quick to take in on the first viewing, but there lies one of the film’s great pleasures. Like reading Shakespeare or Joyce half the battle is concentrating on what’s being said and the temptation to stray away from the narrative is often all too great. But resisting these temptations and holding your attention is rewarded by a great adventure with some very exciting and funny moments.

It’s a curious piece also for it’s truthful, but not necessarily entertaining, conclusion. Mattie, unlike Damon’s titular Ryan in Saving Private Ryan, does not “earn this” and her eventual path in life raises questions about the trail of destruction she and her counterparts leave behind in the film. But her resolve from start to end is neither sentimental nor poetic: she has a job to do and once it’s done that’ll be the end of it.

Rest assured that from titles to credits this is a film that you will love and watch over and over again for years to come.

5/5

Sucker Punch – film review

I can’t bring myself to watch Sucker Punch a second time, even though I feel I should give it a second chance. It’s probably the thought of what I’ll have to endure: that arthritic opening sequence which is as confusing as it is slow; the two dimensional portrayal of all men being slimy potential-raping monsters; the final payoff which is neither surprising, interesting, satisfying nor logical in a narrative sense.

One thing I did like about Sucker Punch which nobody else seemed to like was the dream sequences. Wonderful. If writer/director Zach Snyder could have just made an alternate reality themed sci-fi adventure about of team of sexy babes fighting monsters in different periods of history and on different planets then great, fantastic, I would have watched it over and over again until my eyes got bored of the scenery. It would have been the perfect cross between an episode of Doctor Who and a Pussycat Dolls music video. The dream sequences, or dance sequences, or flights of fancy or whatever the hell they’re meant to be are the sort of moments in cinema that inspire me to write and create more than anything else. They break the mould of what you think you can or can’t do within a fictional framework and gives you something astoundingly beautiful to watch in the mean time. Yes, the sequences are like computer games, but in the best possible way.

But then we come crashing back down to Earth with the tedious “real” story which leaves you wanting to bang each and every characters’ head against the wall for being so utterly stupid.

I didn’t feel bad about the girls being in captivity because they all seemed so daft and willing that they deserved their prison. And the evil club owner and guards? I don’t know, I’m not sure what happened to any of them and, because they’re evil men, I’m not really supposed to care. Apparently there was loads cut out of the film that made it a little more coherent… well I’m sorry but I just don’t believe it, there’s plenty more crap left in that could easily have hit the cutting room floor without anybody noticing. I get the feeling that the trouble started with the script and nobody thought to correct it until so much time and effort had been wasted.

Maybe one day somebody will make an elaborate fantasy science fiction movie that will match the great parts of Sucker Punch and not feel the need to tie it all together with a needlessly convoluted plot about girls in an insane asylum or burlesque. Which plane of reality where they really on? I don’t know and I don’t care. They were mostly all dead or lobotomised by the end anyway so their little fight for freedom was made all the more pointless and so was my time in watching it.

In fact don’t bother watching the whole film, just skip to those dream sequences… honestly, you don’t kneed the rest.

Bah!!

3/5