Just when you thought we would go a year without a Coen brother's film taking up residence during Oscar season, "True Grit" comes along. I know, I was just as disappointed as you were, but believe it or not, these two brothers' haven't been around as much as we think. Sure, back in 1997 "Fargo" was nominated for a few Academy Awards and "The Big Lebowski" is now regarded as a cult favorite, but after that the Coe brother's sort of disappeared from the limelight.

They kept on making films, but nothing really substantial until 2007 when "No Country for old Men" came long and won the Oscar for Best Picture.  Ever since that unfortunate win, these guys have been hanging around and three years later we find yet another highly regarded Joel and Ethan Coen film. And maybe had "True Grit" not been a remake of the original 1969 film starring John Wayne, I might pick it to steal a few awards this year. I know, not everything has to be original, but given the current state of western's, one would think we could get something fresher from this genre on the big screen.

That 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name must be something else for two films, 41 years apart, to be adapted after it. What else could explain the success of this story, which now has rewarded both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges with Oscar nominations?  I guess playing Rooster Cogburn, the main character in both these films, has its rewards, but I have a feeling Wayne will be the only Oscar winner as Bridges will undoubtedly lose out to one of his fellow nominees from 2010. He was good, but it's hard to top his performance last year in "Crazy Heart," which pretty much is the reason why he has no chance this year. So, if anyone was hoping for back to back victories, you better look elsewhere as Bridges simply was not the best out of this cast. That accolade goes to none other than young Hailee Steinfeld, who managed to grab my attention only minutes into her first scene. And over the course of the rest of the film, you were stuck in everything her character was doing, validating her Best Actress nomination. But, like Bridges, she too will lose to someone better, as the race for Best Supporting Actress was over a long time ago after what Melissa Leo and Amy Adams did in "The Fighter."

As for the other eight nominations, it's hard to say which one's turn to gold as I have a bad feeling this film might ride off into the sunset with only one or two Oscars. Just a hunch, but one I feel very strong with given the fact it's won next to nothing this award season. In fact, its' almost become the forgotten contender out of the bunch, which is odd for any film by the Coen brother's. Of course, that doesn't mean it won't win, but it's just hard for me to pick "True Grit" over the other contenders it's nominated with in categories like "Best Directing," "Best Sound Editing," "Best Sound Mixing" and "Best Adapted Screenplay." Sure, I could see it stealing the Oscar for Best Cinematography or even Best Costume Design, but that even a stretch when you see films like "Inception" and "Alice in Wonderland" lurking. So that leaves one of my favorite categories left, Best Art Direction, which quite honestly has become one of the hardest categories to pick in recent years. And that's mostly because it essentially handles the overall look or visual style to a film, dealing with all the sets and backdrops. Period films tend to dominate this category, especially Westerns, but with "The King's Speech" also on the ballot, it might be harder than it looks to earn that statuette.

After watching "True Grit" last month, I remember thinking how much I enjoyed it, despite some of the what I like to call, "overzealous directing." And the 10 Oscar nominations certainly support that notion, but for once I would love to sit down and watch a Coen brother's film without getting irritated. While it didn't completely ruin it all for me, I don't understand why these two brothers' can't tweak their adapted stories more; especially when that said story has an ending that is not only questionable, but out of place. To add in all this extra emotion and storyline to a film that should have ended 10 minutes earlier is just callous. I could care less about some of the added detail and emotion the Coen brother's put into the last 20 minutes of their films. I'm fine with endings that don't necessarily end the way you want, but end it with some sort of value. Because, I can imagine any ending like the one in "True Grit" or "No Country for Old Men" is much better in a book, so when that's the case, adapt and ensure the audience "gets" what they are rightfully owed after watching the first three quarters of the film.  

It's so easy to forget Westerns and what they have meant to Hollywood over the years.  But, the reality is, Westerns are what helped shape the Hollywood we know now and had technology not grown like it did the past 100 years, we might enjoy what a Western brings to the table a bit more. That's why it's good to see a film like "True Grit" get honored in this way, even if it's not as original as I would like. Fact is, we may only get one or two half-way decent Westerns a year these days, so grading them can be quite the task. In fact, I can only think of maybe two or three other Westerns over the past 10 years that are even worth noting, which pretty much tells you everything. Films like "Open Range" and "Brokeback Mountain" are nearly instant classics given the wide range of emotion each possessed. And even "There Will Be Blood" could be lumped into this genre, as it certainly had the look as well. That's pretty much it, so when we only get one of these a year, it's easy to jump all over it like it's the next best John Wayne film when it's probably not.