Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell
Score: 8 out of 10
In the vein of Tender Mercies and A Star is Born, Crazy Heart features an Oscar-winning performance by Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, a washed-up, bloated, alcoholic country star on his journey to the bottom. During his tour circuit of dive bars and bowling alleys filled with fans who are just as wistful for their youth as Bad, he meets a pretty young small-town reporter (Gyllenhaal) who, despite her better judgment, takes up with Bad just as he is given the shot again at stardom he so desperately craves. There's one catch: he'll have to put his ego aside and accept help from his now super-star famous protege Tommy Sweet (Farrell).
The thing about a movie like Crazy Heart is it lives and dies on its performances. So much so one bad apple can ruin the entire film. With the exception of a sometimes shaky Gyllenhaal (and to be fair, my issues are more with how her character was written than with her actual performance), Crazy Heart is excellent all-around (including Duvall as Bad's best friend and bartender). While I would have loved to have seen Bridges' earn some Oscar-love for The Dude oh so many years ago, the little statue he received at this year's shindig was well-deserved.
On top of that, the music is quite good. Bridges and Farrell do their own singing in the film and they're both surprisingly great. The movie's theme song "The Weary Kind" won the Academy Award for Best Song and, while the competition wasn't stiff (more songs by Randy Newman? Really?) it more than deserves the accolade.
While Crazy Heart doesn't offer much new in the story department, it's a quiet, adult-minded film with excellent performances--off stage and on--that's a rarity to find these days playing alongside big-budget extravaganzas at the local multiplex.
