The tense verbal comedy of Mattie's early negotiation with a Fort Smith merchant should win you over to this movie's high linguistic wit. full review

Nothing very startling happens, but the Coens have a sure hand, and Bridges, in the old John Wayne role, plays a man, not a myth; you can sense Rooster's stink and his nasty intelligence, too. full review

The real reason to see the film is the work of the Coens' regular collaborators, cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Carter Burwell, who supply the visual and auditory landscapes that are True Grit's most notable achievement. full review

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen fill the film with self-conscious good humor-hey, it's the Coen brothers-and the charmingly old-fashioned locutions of the Charles Portis novel. full review

A great film that will stand the test of time. full review

This True Grit makes the original almost unwatchable except as a curio. full review

If there's one thing I don't need in my Christmas stocking this year, it's a sorry, lumbering and unasked-for remake of the 1969 sagebrush saga True Grit. full review

Just saddle up and see it yourself. full review

Though handsomely made and well acted, the film never completely escapes the sense that it's an exercise in genre excavation. full review

True Grit isn't so much a major film as a good time, and there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe this movie can get westerns back in the saddle again. full review

This remake by Joel and Ethan Coen is being positioned as a truer True Grit, and though they take their own liberties with the plot and tone, they preserve Portis's impeccably authentic dialogue. full review

Some people are expressing amazement that Joel and Ethan Coen would set out to make a classic western in the first place, and then that they'd accomplish it. All I can say is that those folks haven't been paying attention. full review

My only reservation about the movie, not a serious one but a nagging one, is that watching the film it's hard to see why the Coens wanted to make it. full review

"True Grit" proves to be as funny and heroic as any other legend, and tells an expert tale to boot. full review

In choosing not to reinvent the wagon wheel with True Grit, the Coens ironically seem radical by being conformists. There's truth and beauty in their faithfulness, though, and a reminder never to presume too much about these sibling ciphers. full review

The big names in the cast all do excellent work, but the biggest surprise is all but unknown Steinfeld. full review

It's a tonal mash-up no one but the Coens could deliver, the finest, most intelligent Western since "Unforgiven," with the funniest public hanging since "Blazing Saddles." full review

Joel and Ethan Coen have pulled off an impressive feat: repurposing a classic film with their idiosyncratic blend of dark, deadpan humor and palpable suspense, while remaining ultra-faithful to the novel. full review

If anyone ever needed a quick lesson in the difference between being a great star and being a great actor, a new "True Grit" arrives to give a master's class. full review

The Coens, who like to play with genre, often with giggles and winks, haven't mounted an assault on the western. But in Mattie they have created a character whose single-minded pursuit of vengeance has unmistakable resonance. full review