Review: Crazy Heart (2009)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                           CRAZY HEART
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a once-great
     country music singer who at 57 is reduced to playing
     in bars and bowling alleys.  He has one last chance
     at love with a reporter sent to interview him.  The
     reporter, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, could use a
     father figure for her son and Bridges likes the role.
     But there is a reason Bad is screwing up his life.
     Scott Cooper writes and directs based on Thomas
     Cobb's novel.  The story is familiar, but the Cooper
     gives us characters with texture.  Rating:
     +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

Bad Blake (played by Jeff Bridges) was a country singer who in his
time had something of a following.  Many of the current popular
singers owe their style to learning from him.  But the show is
ending for Bad Blake.  He gets a few paying gigs these days, but
nothing great.  He drives his pickup all over the southwest to
rundown bars and bowling alleys that still have a place for him to
entertain their customers.  Bad gets his entertainment from the
bottom of a bottle.  He prides himself on never having missed a
performance, but too often when he should be on stage his face is
in a trashcan losing his last few drinks.  In Santa Fe attractive
reporter Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) interviews him and the
two of them hit it off.  He even likes Jean's little boy.  The
problem is that Bad and Jean and the bottle make for a crowd of
three and it is one too many.  Bad wants to commit, but he cannot
help living up to his first name whenever he passes a bar or sees a
cute young fan in the audience.

Bridges plays the role note-perfectly.  He seems to like to play
singers in lots of different genres.  He was a stoned-out rock
singer in TIDELAND.  Earlier in his career he was a lounge singer
in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS.  He can be a maverick automobile
executive, a mathematics professor, the President of the United
States, or an alien.  He will not be typecast and his characters
have depth and authenticity.  With Robert Duvall as a bartender and
an old friend of Bad, that makes two actors of that quality in this
film.  And the two actors have something else in common.  Neither
has much of a singing voice.  Bridges does his own singing in this
film, but I do not expect he will cut an album any time soon.
Robert Duvall may be the greatest American actor today (and he does
a mean tango), but when he tries to sing in the closing credits the
results are painful.

Stephen Bruton and T-Bone Burnett wrote the country music.  Burnett
is himself a country music legend.  In addition he provided music
for O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? and THE LADYKILLERS (2004).  Here he
lends a tone of authenticity and style.  The film is reminiscent of
Robert Duvall's TENDER MERCIES.  It is a sort of old shoe of a
film, comfortable with nothing really fancy.  You really care if
these two people will make it together.  And there is some nice
scenery that Bad Blake passes as he travels the Southwest.  But the
center of attraction is that performance by Bridges.

Some good country music and some people you care about make this
film likable if nothing flashy.  But Bridges's characterization is
first rate.  I give CRAZY HEART a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1263670/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/crazy_heart/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper