The last time the Coen brothers attempted a remake, it was 2004’s The Ladykillers, a remake of a beloved bit of a British comedy from 1955 that featured, in its original incarnation, inspired performances from the likes of Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. The Coens’ version was a spectacular failure, as graceless as the original was graceful, shockingly unfunny, and by far the worst film the pair had ever helmed. What followed was a three-year sabbatical during which they presumably regrouped and figured out where they’d gone wrong, since their next film was No Country for Old Men.

This year finds them in remake territory a second time, and the first excellent decision they’ve made is to choose a subject that could stand reworking. The 1969 version of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit may be well known, and may have garnered John Wayne his only acting Oscar, but is remembered more for Wayne’s lovably grizzled performance than for being a very great film. That effort also took significant liberties with the source material. It centered the film on Rooster Cogburn, the U.S. Marshall hired by a teenage girl, Mattie Ross, to help her avenge her father’s death at the hands of an outlaw ranch hand, as well as to create a fairly disturbing sexual tension between Mattie and a Texas ranger by the name of LaBoeuf, who formed the third member of their posse.

The Coens’ True Grit is less a remake of the movie, and more an entirely new run at the book, one that puts Mattie back front and center. Don’t believe for a moment Paramount’s campaign to secure a Supporting Actress Oscar nod for Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Mattie. She’s in nearly every scene in this movie, and there’s a reason the Coens searched for months to find the right young actor: the movie succeeds on her back even moreso than Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon or Josh Brolin, even if those guys are the ones with their names in large type at the top of the movie’s posters.