Winter’s Bone > True Grit

This holiday weekend I saw both of the following movies – True Grit and Winter’s Bone.  The main female character in Winter’s Bone had more “true grit” than anyone in the movie True Grit.

True Grit (2010)

I didn’t get into this film.  I have not seen the original John Wayne movie.

Being a fan of the Coen brothers was a major draw for me.  I love their range as filmmakers.  A list of their films below exemplifies that statement and also shows some of my favorites:

• Raising Arizona (1987)
• Fargo (1996)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Burn After Reading (2008)
• A Serious Man (2009)

My love of their creative range means that my feelings towards this film have little to do with True Grit being a different genre than previous efforts.  After reading through several reviews to find out why this movie has been met with such critical acclaim, it seems I disliked everything that most liked about the film. 

I found the dialogue long-winded and without wit.  I found the main female lead’s flaunting of knowledge to be extreme and prissy as opposed to refreshing, which is uncharacteristic of me because I’m partial to strong, smart female leads in general.  The language and strict use of diction was annoying.  The landscape and cinematography were not very pronounced.   I could go on but I think the point has been made.

Winter’s Bone (2010)

The female lead in this movie, while the opposite of her well-educated, proper True Grit counterpart, has more balls.  But, then, the weight of her burden is real (two young siblings and a mentally ill mother) as opposed to simply the drive of revenge. 

Netflix description:

…Set deep in the Ozarks, resilient teen Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) goes on the trail of her missing, drug-dealing father when his absence jeopardizes the family's safety. Her deadbeat dad has a key court date pending, and Ree is determined that he show up -- despite the objections of the insular Dolly clan.

The description says nothing of the exquisite detail in the film.  The hungry dogs and horse, the wailing cows at auction, the kids having fun on the trampoline amid the impending doom of their lives, the filthy clutter of the cheap, old houses, the simple joy of sitting with family playing a banjo.

There’s not a whole lot of joy in this movie, I’ll admit, and you can feel the harsh cold of the southern Missouri winter that’s mirrored in the faces and actions of Ree’s “family.”  They were all scary – from the hard, lined faces of the women to the scraggly, unkempt men – but Ree’s journey illuminated the world of old “Hatfield and McCoy” rules of family loyalty and the effect of drugs and its money.

What she unflinchingly does in an effort to save her family is remarkable.