Best Actor 2010: Jeff Bridges in True Grit

Jeff Bridges received his sixth Oscar nomination for portraying Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn in True Grit.

True Grit tells of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) who wants to avenge her murdered father and employs the help of a U.S. Marshall.

Jeff Bridges is the second person to be nominated to play the one eyed Rooster, John Wayne won his Oscar for the same role. Wayne oddly portrayed the part with the mannerisms of Wallace Beery, and Bridges also portrays the part with different mannerisms from his usual performance, portraying them with an accent, and quite the slurred speech.

On re-watch the mannerisms improved slightly though remained a little bit of a mixed bag for me. This as I do think in general the conceptualization of the character is a good one. This as kind of a this very grungy sort, who probably smells a bit, and has a definite hard edge. Bridges evokes that with his performance, but it isn't quite the cut and dry package of success to me still. I like the general idea, but not the whole execution of it. This as Bridges's work has a slight inconsistency within it, that also stays within the overarching film that keeps me from loving it wholly, though I do have great affection still. This in moments where the style just misses ever so slightly, which again are highly specific moments, though stand out all the more due to this.  This for example when really Bridges's delivery gets a little too mealy mouthed, and falling too closely towards caricature.

The highly specified western dialect I think is the error in this, as occasionally the lines just seem out of grasp for the actors to fully pull them off. This remained the one source of consternation with the film, where perhaps Coens needed one more take or just to change the lines to something slightly more manageable. Although one should mention Barry Pepper does nail every one of his lines with such success, I do have to blame the other actors perhaps a bit more. This doesn't happen a lot with Bridges but it occasionally does. This where it sort of breaks the function of the creation of Rooster as this very certain type, and becomes Bridge playing the part. 

There is still plenty to like within the performance. Bridges does carry a strong presence needed for the part, and there are a lot of little moments he delivers quite effectively. These with moments of kind of keeping his drunken fool manner, until action takes place and you can basically see a change in his eyes where you see the professional kick in. There is a sense of moments within the years of the character as he growls on and on about this or that. This in granting a sense of the man as a storied western type far from a hero, but villainy only limited to high interest banks. Bridges is having fun and sometimes this does pay off within crafting his purposefully messier Rooster. There are good moments in this realization of this version of the character. You do believe him for the most part as this man very much developed and realized by an age. Having said all that, my reservations still remain. It is a good performance, but the elements that skewed my opinion so negatively initially still exist for me, even if I'll grant there was more to appreciate in his work upon reflection.