Henry Saw: Crazy Heart

A very solid little film


Crazy Heart is kind of 2009's The Wrestler...except it's actually good. It tells the story of "Bad" Blake (Jeff Bridges), a former country music superstar, who now finds himself playing in bowling alleys and dive bars after succumbing to aging and alcoholism. Bad still has it but his drinking disrupts his shows and has derailed his ability to write new songs. While doing a gig in Sante Fe, Bad meets a reporter for a local paper named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and the two start an unlikely romance. Jean is a single mother of a 4 year old boy named Buddy who Bad bonds with, and Jean and Buddy force Bad to reevaluate his drinking, his professional relationship with a former protege turned superstar named Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrel), and his life.

Jeff Bridges is the heart and soul of the movie. Bad Blake has all the charm of Bridges' most famous role (The Dude from The Big Lebowski) but with much more realistic faults. It would be easy to say that playing a heavy drinker is kind of a crutch for actors (see Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas) but Bridges avoids some big breakdown scene, or having it completely define Bad's character, and is quite effective at portraying a semi-functioning alcoholic.



Bridges is in every scene in the film and brings out the best in his co-stars. Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I've never really liked, is fairly strong here as a woman who can't help but fall in love with Bad Blake. She knows he's a bit of a wreck, and could be dangerous for her son to be around, but she hopes for the best. It is a credit to Bridges that despite the age difference we buy that Jean would fall for Bad. Bridges also interacts well with Colin Farral, who is well cast as a Kieth Urban type country star, and I completely understood their relationship despite not having too many scenes together.

I should also mention the music, which was actually played and sung by both Bridges and Farral in the film, and it isn't half bad. I'm not a country music fan but the songs, which were written by Stephen Bruton and T-Bone Burnett, range from fine to quite catchy. The standout is Fallin & Flyin, which was supposedly Bad Blake's biggest hit, and is certainly something I will seek out on iTunes.

First time director Scott Cooper does a capable, if unremarkable, job. Nothing about the look of the film stood out but credit must go to Cooper for avoiding too many cliches, keeping the movie incredibly focused, and getting such strong performances from the whole cast. Cooper is content to trust the actors to sell the story and never falls into melodramatic territory.

In the end, Crazy Heart is all about Jeff Bridges. And despite the fact that his character does some awful things, and is a pathetic sight for most of the picture, there is something very admirable about Bad's drive to continue trying to make music and entertain crowds. There is a scene at the end between Bad and his agent that really stood out as being a nice statement on perseverance and, if not redemption, making an effort to change.



I've now seen the front-runners for the Best Actor Oscar: George Clooney in Up in the Air, Colin Firth in A Single Man, and Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. While none of these performances are all-time great, and it's possible that Jeremy Renner was better than any of them in The Hurt Locker, but of the big three I definitely think Bridges was the most impressive. Not because he plays an alcoholic, or plays all the music himself, but because I think he most disappeared into the role. By the end of the film I truly believed Bad Bone as a character, not as a part, and it was his story and arc that most touched me.

Grade: B+

Best Scene: That final little moment between Bad and his agent. Though the first performance of Fallin & Flyin was pretty good too.