“Crazy Heart”
4 out of 5 stars
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell
Director: Scott Cooper
Rated R for language and brief sexuality
Running time: 112 minutes
It’s a close call who should win the best leading actor Oscar in February. Because another underrated veteran gives a career-topping performance in “Crazy Heart.” Colin Firth proved himself a master of restraint in last month’s “A Single Man.” But Jeff Bridges, playing a down-and-out country musician, is as convincing and indelible in today’s personal drama as he has ever been.
Bridges achieves a kind of thespian hat trick in his rendering of the fading star Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart.” Besides getting the general emotions and movements of the character right, he is also challenged here to have to sing like a would-be professional, play the guitar believably, and behave intoxicated to varying degrees throughout the picture. Playing drunk is a particular test that many a good actor has overdone.
But Bridges’ charisma and ease, the way he so smoothly subsumes himself into a character — it elevates a small-scale production and its standard storyline into something exquisite to watch.
Directed and written by Scott Cooper, based on the novel by Thomas Cobb, “Crazy Heart” unfolds pretty much as you’d expect. This is a movie about an alcoholic. So, it’s only a question of when the protagonist will hit bottom and then, eventually, redeem himself.
The decrepit, burned-out 57-year-old is reduced to playing bowling alleys, bedding sad middle-aged groupies and driving his rusty truck from one seedy motel to another for gigs throughout the Southwest. Bad Blake’s former protege — Colin Farrell, impressive in the small part of Tommy Sweet — is now a successful headliner. The only way Bad can have a comeback is if he swallows his pride with Tommy.
Meanwhile, Bad begins to fall for a Sante Fe, N.M., music journalist and single mom. Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is considerably younger and more together than her new lover. But Jean seems attracted to Bad’s melancholy sweetness and artistic depth. As they bond and he becomes close to her young son (Jack Nation), you can foresee well ahead that Bad is going to do something bad to spoil things.
The movie’s beguiling, bluesy country music — written by Stephen Bruton and legendary producer T-Bone Burnett — stands beautifully on its own and also feels true to the fictional character who supposedly created it. And with the inscrutable cool of Waylon Jennings and the grizzled look and gravelly sound of Kris Kristofferson, Bridges brings it to life.
