Film Review Crazy Heart
USA 2009. Cert: 15. 112 mins. Dir: Scott Cooper. Cast: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell (
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Film Review: Crazy Heart
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Country rocker Bad Blake (Bridges) appears to have his best days behind him. The albums that made him famous are collectors’ items and his well known country ballads are radio fodder, but he’s now more likely to pack bowling alleys and bars than stadiums. There’s no song that can’t be made more melancholy by two for the road and no town that doesn’t look better through the bottom of a whiskey glass.
Caught between wanting and resenting the past, Bad meanders from nondescript venue to venue. In one town he’s asked by the bar’s owner if he will do an interview with his young niece, Jean, for the local paper. Somewhat reluctantly he agrees and when Jean turns out to be Gyllenhaal, he also does his best to charm her into bed - which he eventually manages successfully. But Jean is a single mother with no illusions about the unreliability of men - never mind a rocker twice her age. She presumes Bad will be a temporary distraction, but she’s in no mood to risk more than that. However despite himself, Bad realises he doesn’t want to lose this sudden levelling force of nature in his life. As a second chance at stardom beckons, can Bad turn his floundering life around or will old habits die hard?
Crazy Heart is a formulaic redemption story, but Bridges is at the top of his game somehow imbuing what could be a one-note role with a weathered nostalgia that makes you sympathise even when you shouldn’t. It’s a bittersweet performance coupled with some great songs, several sung by Bridges himself. Like the whiskey in the glass, it’s measured and can burn on tasting, but you can tell when its been successfully seasoned by the years.
Already Oscar favourites, both Bridges and the film will surely strike all the right chords.
On general 6 February
Posted on Friday 5th February 2010
John Mosby
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