Jeff Bridges must like cowboys a lot, because he may well have won himself another Oscar by going back to the country.
Despite essentially dropping at the same time as another Bridges vehicle Tron, True Grit launched to very little fanfare and should be an Oscar slam dunk with a gritty, untainted view of the old west that even John Wayne would have loved.
The film feels like a Coen Brothers film, looks like one, lord knows with such vividness and clarity, it would smell like one if that were logically possible in the age of 3D film.
Bridges is masterful and completely under stated as Marshall Rooster Cogburn. It’s the sort of role that many an actor would work to the hilt and savagely over act. Not Bridges. Bridges plays it cool, all but leaving the star position to Hailee Steinfeld, who displays aplomb far above her years as the vengeance seeking Mattie Ross.
Windswept and dusty, this darkened heart of the heartland is easily 2010′s finest effort and a reminder that you don’t need 3D, Tom Cruise or Daft Punk to be riveting.