You know how the Coen brothers always have their Coen-brothery schtick in just about every movie they make? It's not the same schtick in every movie, and it's a schtick I like almost always, but it's there. You never don't know you're watching a Coen brothers movie. I like that in this movie, their schtick was, there is no schtick. I guess they figured they'd tried just about every other cinematic trick in the universe, so why not just play this one straight and see how that'd go? It's like if Jackson Pollock just said, "Ah, fuck it. I'm just gonna paint a really pretty picture of a pony today," and was super good at that too. OK, there are a few little Coen-isms here and there, like how no one in the whole movie uses a contraction, ever. And certainly Jeff Bridges' Rooster Cogburn evokes the Dude more than a little. But mainly it's just a straight-up well done Western.
I loved Matt Damon too, and am surprised he didn't get more praise for his work in this. Hailee Steinfeld is great as well, but I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and say she's been maybe a touch overpraised. She did a great job with the difficult dialogue, but I never forgot she was acting. The same could also be said for Jeff Bridges work in this film, but my adoration of him knows no bounds, and I mean, come on. It's Jeff Bridges--if not the most awesome man in the entire universe, then at least the most awesome man in Hollywood, ever. So, yes, nits can be picked, but the overall effect seems to be a very faithful adaptation of a very funny and compelling novel, done lovingly and well. It didn't blow me away, but it was very satisfying. In my Best Picture nom rankings, this one is usually somewhere in the middle, maybe 4 or 5. Which sounds like faint praise, but this was a pretty good year for film, and there isn't an actual stinker in the bunch, so...Yeah. 4th or 5th.
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I found the dialogue to be very Coen Brothers-y, which is not a criticism in any way. I've read/heard that much of the dialogue comes almost directly from the book, but the decision to use it definitely felt like Coen Brothers schtick.
Although I enjoyed the movie, I didn't love it. To me, there just wasn't much drama or tension--I knew what was going to happen and not because I'd seen the original (I don't think I have), read the book (definitely not), or read too many reviews to spoil it (again, no).
I don't mean that to sound harsh or like I didn't enjoy the journey of the movie because I did. I just wasn't invested too heavily into it because of the lack of drama or sense of urgency, so I just didn't care that much.
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