Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Khristine Biver.  Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010.

Crazy Heart is a story about Bad Blake, (Jeff Bridges), who is a washed-up, chain smoking, alcoholic country singer who is reduced to playing bowling alleys and bars with pickup teenage bands.  His star is far from shining.  After engaging in a failed love affair with a journalist, (Maggie Gyllenhaal) Bad is forced to reassess his life of how it went rock bottom and to sober up.

So many deservedly great things have been written about Crazy Heart, I felt it would be more appropriate to give some other reviewers a chance to let their words shine:

Variety quite rightly describes the film as:

The rocky road of boozy nights, busted dreams and the hope of one more chance, traveled in so many country songs and movies, is good for yet another trip in Crazy Heart. Playing a drunken, washed-up music legend reduced to playing small-town bowling alleys, Jeff Bridges is the whole show here as a cowboy-style crooner who wrestles with his demons in ways that easily engage an audience’s sympathies.  Having skipped the fall festival circuit in anticipation of the 2010 release, Fox Searchlight has quickly scrambled to slip the indie-stlye film into the year-end awards season hung, a likely shrewd gamble that will help yield sweet midrange commercial results. Variety, December 2009.

The Hollywood Reporter gives the best description of Bridge’s superb acting:

Fox Searchlight’s sudden decision to toss “Crazy Heart” into the heat of December and therefore the Oscar competition casts a brighter spotlight — and greater scrutiny — on what is a modest, rather conventional depiction of an aging and alcoholic country musician on a lengthy downward spiral. Had this film appeared later at Sundance, you would have the pleasure of discovering a fine performance by Jeff Bridges in an otherwise unremarkable movie. But with his best actor candidacy already announced, you start to notice his uncanny resemblance to Kris Kristofferson and speculate about how much this performance derives from Rip Torn’s still-memorable turn as a ruthlessly self-absorbed country singer in the 1973 film “Payday.” The Hollywood Reporter, November 29, 2009.

The Washington Post appropriately critiques the directing:

Thanks to a compassionate, self-aware performance by Bridges and the superbly restrained filmmaking of first-time writer director Scott Cooper, “Crazy Heart” never wallows in self-pity or romanticized excess. Rather, it takes Bad and the audience on a thoroughly surprising and ultimately cheering journey, as he finds his hard-living ways challenged by a single mom, played with equal parts vulnerability and grit by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The Washington Post, January 2010.

The LA Times highlights the music talent of both Jeff Bridge’s and producer T Bone Burnett:

On a par with Bridges’ acting, and a sine qua non for “Crazy Heart’s” success, is the excellent music he sings. There are great country songs, including Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” and Waylon Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” laced throughout the film, but the heart of Bad’s act are the appealing melodies written for the picture by superb music producer T Bone Burnett and the late guitar player/songwriter Stephen Bruton. (Burnett and Ryan Bingham wrote the closing ballad “The Weary Kind.”) Hearing Bad’s way with these enticing songs delineates his character as much as his words or his actions.          The LA Times, December 16, 2009

All in all this film is quite spectacular.  It showcases wonderful talent in both the acting element, as well as the strong musical aspects of the film.  I think the best part of this film is that it is not a typical love story and like in life, sometimes the girl gets away.