"Crazy Heart" is the career milestone of one of the best, often-under appreciated actors of our time, Jeff Bridges. It's unavoidable that this film will be viewed as drawing parallels with "The Wrestler", both about broken down ex-stars in middle age, and whereas "Wrestler" revived Mickey Rourke's career so will "Crazy Heart" revive Bridges. And you can bet the farm that Bridges will win Best Actor for this little gem of a film. It's the best performance of his long and often colorful career.
Bridges is in virtually every frame of the film, a character-study of an alcoholic chain-smoking country music singer. With his craggy face, graying beard and bloated body, Bridges inhabits every stinking pore of this guy named Bad. Even when he’s singing, he never breaks character, and the songs (written by T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, among others) fit him perfectly. First-time writer-director Scott Cooper is at the helm of the film that manages to tell a familiar story that never feels old.
Bad has a protégé, Tommy Sweet(Colin Ferrell, doing what he should do, a character role- he's not good enough to carry a film), who has become a huge country star, and is willing to lend Bad a helping hand if Bad will write some songs for him. But writing songs requires Bad to stop and peer inside himself, and he doesn’t dare do that. So instead, he barrels down the highway from gig to gig in his beaten up suv, riding on nearly-forgotten hits.
When he arrives in Santa Fe,aA local journalist named Jean (played by the goony-looking Maggie Gyllenhaal) is waiting to interview him. She’s leery of his charms, but Bad starts to clean himself up a little, act like a grandfather figure to Jean’s 4-year-old son. Maggie Gyllenhaal is one of these actresses who has limited ability that is constantly shoveled down our throats in good roles so many others could do so much better. Here, she's okay, but that's all. Robert Duvall, pops up with a bit part late in the film, I guess because he was in a similar film, Tender Mercies.
An opening gig for Tommy presents itself to Bad, and he sees a way he can dig himself out of the pit he’s in. He kills at the gig. But things go horribly wrong when he tries to cultivate his relationship with Jean. She trusts him with her son and Bad blows it big time
Crazy Heart has a realistic although not classically satisfying ending. But it's simple and in it's way beautiful. I'm not a country music fan, but I still thought the music was great. This is one of the best films of the year.
Rating:
Presentation: 30 - nothing earth-shaking but some beautiful western landscapes along with seedy bars
Plot: 27 - solid
character: 32 Bridges dominates
Total: 89
