True Grit

Coen Brothers' latest, a remake of the Hathaway film (or at least sharing a source)
perhaps the Coen's poorest work; not a disaster, but very dissapointing
The huge frame (at least 2.35:1) is largely used for solo shots/ rather uninspired close ups
rarely have the Coen's used such a technique before; but they're not suited for close-ups, this film is about perception rather than affect. No character is able to sustain a close-up
the typical Coen (rather, Roger Deakin) telephoto pin-the-face-on-the-wall is used, but this time with backlighting rather than frontlighting
there really are very (comparitively) few shots of multimple characters in frame; a few wider ones, but generally rather dissapinting over the shoulder stuff
this is really stand and deliver; a lot of visually dull ping-pong (with characters framed slightly to the side of the screen to even things out)
the colour scheme (greens, browns) has a nice feel to it, and of course the Western landscape can't fail to have moments of beauty
but this is really underexplouted; don't get a feel of the landscape and the mis-en-scene is surpirsingly poor; everything looks a bit faked
For the plot, we are entirely with Mattie Ross, but this kind of single-view technique needs a faster plot
the problem arises that it isn't directed to give us a sense of character, but the plot is simply too slow/ the script is too interested in the characters
have certain scenes (way) too long, some too short, feels unbalanced in its parts
All that really saves this film is Bridges creating a distinct character (though not capable of some scenes, i.e. the action; he is an excellent character from another film)
the script will be seen as sweet, but it doesn't really work, especially in the wordier parts where it's nearly embarrasing watching the actors have to split out the lines
the characters, and the setting, deserve a better made film than this
so, despite decent characterisation, and the in-itself interesting milleu, this really left us wanting to watch the cooler, slower, more involved Hathaway film; which isn't all that great, anyway