Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Bridges’

Going to any Coen Brothers is always unpredictable and a sure treat. Their films have always given the audience their money’s worth, with intelligent storytelling (not overwritten, but suitable to their themes and situations). They are artists who don’t regard their audiences as a focus group, but as men, women, and children who yearn to see an intelligent, exciting, and literate cinematic experience. For years, they have made amazing films such as “Fargo”, “No Country for Old Men”, and “Raising Arizona”, exploring and succeeding in just about any type of genre. I’m dying to see what they’d achieve with Science Fiction. Their second turn at exploring the American West is practically a flawless enterprise, a beautiful, haunting, funny, and exciting movie, a story with heart, a solid intelligent storyline, and terrific acting, one that introduces the birth of a very talented performer, a 14-year old young woman who someday will become a star, Ms. Hailee Steinfeld, in her movie debut, something that appears an unbelievable feat since she has only done shorts and TV shows until now.

Steinfield commands the screen with her perfect diction, and she matches every single performer with her understanding of her character, an intelligent and precocious teenager who wants to avenge her father’s murder. In a few words, the film is about her quest and the various situations she encounters along the way. She realizes from early on it’s impossible to complete her mission with a professional’s assistance, and she engages the services of Mr. Rooster Cogburn, (Bridges giving another sensational performance).

As they reach the climatic scenes, we are treated to a series of episodes and vistas rarely seen in recent Westerns. Here is a movie that gives us the feeling of taking a virtual trip to the Old West, a place full of the stereotypes so prevalent in this film, but exquisitely and masterfully presented and shot through the eyes of Roger Deakins outdoing his previous work. Here are desolate vistas, births of new towns, a palpable depiction of the tough, lawless early days of the Western frontier. We see the recreation of the growing settlements, the restrictive gender situations and social differences. No detail has been left out or spared. It takes almost a documentary feel, but this is contrasted with the realistic approach and the attention to the speech of the times. Yes, the words and their delivery was different. People went beyond “see ya” or “talk 2 u, 2″ back then. They knew specific terms for particular emotions and items, and though a bit unsettling at first, it’s very impressive how the young Hailee Steinfeld completely commands the screen whenever she is in front of the camera and must speak her part.

The film is not a staid work of art; it’s a living, pulsating, and very exciting piece to see, something that will delight just about everyone in the audience, with the depiction of our heroes’ quest for justice. As they get to know each other, meet good and bad characters, face the harshness of the world they live in, we are constantly in awe of the beauty and emotion in every frame of the film.

There is one remarkable scene after another: the trial that introduces Cogburn, her exchange with the businessman to settle her late father’s accounts, visiting the undertaker, her first realization she is now in the midst of a battle for survival, where the only way out is a life or death move. The closing scene has a haunting quality, a suitable ending to a film that is both intimate and epic, a scene that shows the mythical quality of the West and how we recollect the essence of the soul that is a true American genre. A few years ago, one film try to demystify these qualities, and it impressed many, but it almost killed the beating heart of this type of films. The Coens have in their own unmistakable way given it its due rebirth, and it is bright, strong, and full of the right feelings. Here is a movie to enjoy and treasure, easily one of the best ever made.