It slips by almost unnoticed. Mattie Ross, relating her own tale of her adventures with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, mentions her sister twice… and calls her by two different names. First she is Victoria, then she is Violet. It is the kind of mistake that occurs when someone is spinning an elaborate yarn and fails to remember all the niggling details from telling to telling. I thought, Aha: this is how the Coen Brothers will put their unique spin on the previously cinematized tale of vengeance and unexpected friendship between the teenage girl out for revenge and/or justice upon her father’s murderer, and the man she hires to exact that retribution.

True Grit – the 1968 novel as well as this new adaptation, a more faithful one than the 1969 film – is, after all, told from the perspective of a much older Mattie, reflecting on these times. Is it possible that Joel and Ethan Coen, sharing screenwriting and directing duties, have found a chink in Charles Portis’ book, a way to inject their own angle into a familiar genre? Could their True Grit be a tall tale in the vein of their O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I was startled to discover that there is no such indication to be found, not even by squinting really really hard, that this True Grit should not be taken at face value, that we are dealing with an intriguingly unreliable narrator. And yet it’s hard to imagine how such a flat-out gaffe could occur in a film by the Coens, who are so deeply attentive to detail – it may be the one thing that makes their films such a joy to watch. I hate to think this Victoria/Violet thing is simply inadvertent… but it sure looks as if it is.

That sense, that there’s either something great just beyond the grasp of the Coens here, something that they may not even be aware of, hangs over this elegant yet vaguely unfinished film. The production is graceful, in a down-to-earth, hardbitten sort of way; the aura of it is startlingly authentic, as far I can tell, never having experienced the Old West (I love how the characters speak in an old-fashioned rhythm, with fewer contractions – a distinction that not all historical films bother with); the performances are extraordinarily fine, and worthy of all praise that will be heaped upon them. I just don’t know what the purpose of the film is, nor why the Coens felt compelled to remake it. I was never emotionally engaged, which would seem to be a demand of a film that is all about emotion-fueled action. And I’m more than a smidge disturbed that the moral, if there is one at all, appears to be: “Revenge comes with a high price, but it’s worth paying.”

There are powerful pleasures to be found here, for sure. Hailee Steinfeld, making her impressive feature debut, is as sardonic and quick as the movie itself, and burns with a sly, dry wit that belies her character’s age – Mattie is 14, but has been forced by her father’s death and her mother’s ineffectualness to grow up fast. She is “saucy,” one character deems her, not necessarily in an approving way, though a villain, seems to nod with endorsement when he notes that she does “not varnish in [her] opinion.” Kudos to the Coens for not watering her down by removing the focus of the story from her… and kudos to Steinfeld for not letting herself get bowled over by Jeff Bridges as Cogburn, whom she hires to find her father’s killer.

Bridges manages to be both hulking and vulnerable as the drunkard, trigger-happy lawman – he’s the “meanest” marshal, says the sheriff of the town – but never in any tediously sentimental way that suggests that little girls are the way to melt a scoundrel’s heart. Matt Damon, as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, hunting the same killer for yet another murder, is more wry, more purely enjoyable than he’s ever been, which isn’t to impugn his earlier work: He just seems more relaxed here than ever before. And Josh Brolin, when he finally shows up as the killer Tom Chaney in the final 30 minutes, is more creepy than he’s been set up to be, and makes the smallness of Chaney’s violence and cowardice shockingly ordinary.

There is a lot to respect about True Grit, and much to admire. I just can’t say that I actively enjoyed most of it. There’s very little unexpected about this competent and yet uninspired film. I expected more from the Coens. Much more.

TRUE GRIT (2½) Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen • Starring Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon • Rated PG-13 • 110 min. • At Century Cinemas Del Monte, Maya Cinemas, Northridge Cinemas, Lighthouse Cinemas.