Crazy Heart

Actor-turned-director Scott Cooper has fashioned a simply-told, naturally-performed musical drama about the day-to-day twlight grind of a musician who looks at himself as a has-been when in fact he is very much beloved by people he never would expect.

When Bad Blake (Bridges) bothers to lay down the whiskey and cigarettes, it’s only to pick up a guitar. He's had many years of hard-drinking and chain-smoking. At 57, he’s long past his prime, barely scratching out a living playing backwater honkytonks, bowling alleys and whatever remote gig his agent can squeeze from the handful of fans who still remember him. He hasn’t written a song in years and doesn’t plan on ever writing again. Functional when performing (barely), Blake lives his life one day at time, all his worldly possessions packed into the beat-up old Suburban that gets him from gig to gig. It appears he's come to accept his predicament; unhappy yet content.

If Blake has anything akin to a mantra, it seems to be “live for the moment;” he expects little from the future and never dwells too much on the past. An otherwise routine newspaper interview with an attractive young reporter named Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), however, sets in motion events that will bring both past and future into a new focus.

An unexpected passionate romance blossoms between Bad & Jean. Soon after, Bad is given the chance at a resurrected career courtesy of country superstar Tommy Sweet (an uncredited Colin Farrell), one of Blake’s former backup men. Both opportunities force a softening of his crusty exterior—Sweet has always been a painful reminder of Blake’s failures, and it takes an ample portion of humble pie to even consider the gesture. Jean, on the other hand, demands more than a casual commitment—her 4 year old son Buddy needs a role model and her life needs stability. This promise of a new family life and a career comeback is not as easy a thing for Bad to embrace as one might believe. And there in lies the element of CRAZY HEART and Bridges' acclaimed performance that makes this film a standout.

Bridges' natural swagger he gives Bad Blake is a presense I think we recognize in ourselves or someone we know, regardless of talent(s). He showcases Bad's struggle with honest humility and it makes you sympathize complicitly. Same for Maggie Gyllenhaal's well-deserverd Oscar nominated performance as Jean, a loyal hard-working single-mother who despite being nearly 30 years Bad's junior, is far more wise and learned of the trials that life brings one's way.

The music is in a word: beautiful. Having not listened to country music for quite some time, it releves me that there is still great sounds to be experieced down south and music supervisor and producer T Bone Burnett (WALK THE LINE) has given the film a soundtrack of heart & soul. Special kudos to Robert Duvall (for his supporting role as Bad's best friend Wayne), and the always-magnificent Colin Farrell for his performance as Tommy, who is sort of the parrallel equivalent of Jean.

FUN FACT: Both Bridges and Farrell do all their own singing. In Farrell's case this is partcularly intiguing and impressive given that he's an Irishman playing a southern-accented American, singing Country music in a Southern accent.