True Grit (2010)

Hailee Steinfeld's Mattie supplies the deciding advantage over the 1969 film: her fierce negotiations remain the story's centre even beside Jeff Bridges's magnificently disreputable marshal. The Coens return to Charles Portis's novel rather than simply restaging the earlier adaptation. Both versions have memorable Roosters; this one makes the girl's certainty, and the world resisting it, unusually sharp. The dry verbal comedy gives its wintry revenge journey a welcome bite.