Movie Review: Crazy Heart
Films opening this week:
Crazy Heart - Amherst Dipson; Eastern Hills Dipson
Edge of Darkness - Maple Ridge; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals; Flix
When in Rome - Market Arcade; McKinley Mall Dipson; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Hollywood Regals; Flix - REVIEW
Life ain’t no place for the weary kind. Just ask Bad Blake. Here is a man whose a soul has been ravaged and decimated from a life of alcoholism and chain-smoking. Able to compose a song that will resonate for decades to comealmost every time he picks up his guitar, Blake means well, but can never clean up enough to achieve greater success. He is many things: a legend to those who know "real country"; teacher and mentor to the younger crowd’s new heartthrob superstar, Colin Farrell’s Tommy Sweet; and a has-been screw-up who’s four times divorced and estranged from his son for more than twenty-five years. This man is in desperate need of a wake-up call. The question that looms over Crazy Heart, as a result, is whether or not Bad deserves to be redeemed. And that’s where Jeff Bridges comes in with one of the best turns of the year. He's sympathetic and—at the same time—completely selfish.
The film is based on a novel by Thomas Cobb; the writer/director Scott Cooper.
As the film opens, Bad has taken himself out of the limelight. He refuses to believe he can write a new song, but is unable to do anything except play. Even after headlining bowling alleys and dive bars, the prospect of opening for Sweet at a 12,000-capacity venue completely disgusts him; he is too prideful to take a backseat and realize when a helping hand is being extended. While he never misses a show, he's also not able to consistently finish them. The older women he beds each night do nothing to fulfill his need for companionship. His buddy Wayne (a nice role for Robert Duvall, a guy seeing a lot of supporting work lately and excelling at it) is all he has.
Enter Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a chance at redemption. A single mom, Gyllenhaal’s Jean is almost exactly what Blake left a quarter century ago. This time he wants to stick around and be the father he never was, and the lover he neglected to be while on the road. The matter of alcohol always looms large, however, and it only becomes a matter of time before something derails his life again.
And this is where Crazy Heart truly excels. Utterly believable at every turn, it manages to avoid the legend-turned-boozer cliché. Gyllenhaal is nuanced and controlled, allowing Bridges to show the compassion he has kept bottled inside for so long. And Bridges has never been better, a mixture of self-loathing and stubbornness. You may think you know how it will all end, but this isn’t typical Hollywood drama—expect that the outcome feels true.
Bridges and the strong tale at hand would be nothing without the amazing work of T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, whose soundtrack is top-notch "real" country, and Bridges pulls off each and every performance—as does Farrell. At one point, Jean asks Blake where the music comes from. "From life, unfortunately,” he replies. Each chord and lyric tells the story of his past, especially the Golden Globe winning “The Weary Kind.” To build a story around the power of one piece of music composed in bed on a broken ankle is certainly a tricky endeavor, but Bingham and Burnett were up to the task.
Crazy Heart 8/10
photography:
[1] L-R: Jeff Bridges and Robert Duvall Photo Credit: Lorey Sebastian. © Fox Searchlight.
[2] L-R: Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal Photo Credit: Lorey Sebastian. © Fox Searchlight.
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