Crazy Heart Review

Crazy Heart reminded me of The Wrestler, a film I really wanted to love, really wanted to be moved by. In the end I liked it, mainly due to a great central performance by Jeff Bridges, but I wasn't wowed by it in the way I wanted to be.

Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed up country and western singer who knew the big time but who now drives his battered old pick-up truck from tiny gig to tiny gig, and spends much of his time being sick as he slowly drinks himself to death. In a small town playing such a gig he meets Jean, a reporter who wants to interview him for the local magazine. This sets Bad on a long and uneasy path to redemption as he strikes up a relationship with Jean, becomes a surrogate father to her son and rediscovers his love and passion, not only for music, but for life in general.

The main reason to see Crazy Heart is for the central performance by Bridges. This is a character who carries alot of sadness and regret and it's written all over Bridges' face, even as he uses his charm to win over those people he encounters, particularly Jean. You get a real sense that this is a guy who has lived, that this is not a character created for the 2 hour duration of the film, but a person who was around before the film started and will be when it ends. What's great about the film is the way it uses very small moments to convey its emotions. There is no great revelation, no hysterics (either in the script or in Bridges' performance) and most of what happens with and to Blake feels true and real. Blake was a mentor to country and western sensation Tommy Sweet (a strange cameo from Colin Farrell) but it's now Sweet who plays to sold out arenas while Blake plays to two dozen people in a bowling alley. Tommy is loyal to his old mentor and offers to have him open for him at his latest concert. There is a wonderful moment when, as Blake plays his signature song, Tommy comes out on stage to join in and the crowd goes wild. It should be a great moment of two excellent musicians together on stage but, even though Sweet never takes any pleasure from the situation or rubs Blake's face in it (and indeed publicly defers to Blake onstage), you can see that Blake knows that he is there only by Tommy's charity and those enormous cheers reverborating around the arena are not for him. It's one of many small moments that are wonderfully written and executed and, again, superbly played by Bridges.

So why do they not all add up to a truly great film? Part of the problem lies in a personal dislike for Maggie Gyllenhaal who plays Jean. She does what she does and is never bad per se but I never really believe her and, to be perfectly honest, she kind of annoys me. For this reason I couldn't really invest in the central relationship and, while I understand that she has had it hard and is desperate for love and he has had it hard and wants to connect and, as I said, certainly has much charm and charisma despite his problems, I'm always somewhat dubious of movie relationships like this where the (much) younger woman falls for the older man. They look wrong together somehow and, despite her single mum status, Gyllenhaal simply lacks the gravitas and sense of "worldliness" to make me believe that Blake would fall for her for reasons other than that she is a nice, pretty girl in a small town or, indeed, she for him. At a certain point in the film her character makes a decision that ends up being the crux for Blake wanting to change his ways. While the scene itself is well done and well played it was one moment that didn't ring true for me because, I simply didn't believe that she would do it and, if I went with it, I would lose all sympathy for the character.

Any film that eschews trite, contrived, "Hollywood" drama, particularly at this time of year when films like that are rife (I'm looking at you Clint Eastwood) and instead goes for something more real and necessarily low key is to be admired and director Scott Cooper certainly earns much benefit of the doubt on those grounds alone. But one must judge the film onscreen and, while it was good and enjoyable and generally well acted, ultimately I walked out of the cinema in no danger of needing to dry my eyes. Jeff Bridges is the favourite to pick up the Best Actor Oscar in a couple of weeks and I certainly wouldn't begrudge it to him, for this film as well as for the cumulative value of much of his work up to this point which, let's be honest, is how many an Oscar winner has won their award. Hoo-ha! There is much to enjoy in Crazy Heart but, at the end of the day it really is one of those films I wanted to like more than I really did .

6/10

Invictus Review

Would you like cheese with your film? How about extra cheese? How about a giant dollop of cheese served with some thickly cut ham?

80 year old Clint Eastwood (Seriously Clint, you've nothing to prove, spend some time with the family) has turned the Oscar bait movie into an art form. Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby (I have to say I do really like that film), Flags of our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, Changeling and Gran Torino were all made with that golden trophy in mind and released in the latter part of the year to keep the films fresh in the minds of the Academy members, most of whom are as old as the director who made them. With Invictus however, Eastwood has surely made his oscar bait masterpiece, a film dripping worthiness, oozing earnestnees from every pore.

Somewhat predictably we get Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela (personally I would have much rathered Chris Rock), released from prison and elected president of a country still torn apart by the evil that was apartheid. Their national rugby team The Springboks, led by captain Matt Damon, are supported predominantly by the whites and are losing badly. When South Africa is chosen to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Mandela sees an opportunity to heal the country and unite it through sport. So he meets Damon, impresses upon him the importance of victory, turns up at a meeting of the national rugby organisation who are voting to get rid of the name and colours of the Springboks to change their mind, learns the sport, learns the players' names and generally helps ensure the people get behind the team as, against all the odds, they make it to the final. (Spoiler: They win.)

Is it just me? Am I just too cynical of films now? I don't think I am. Here is a run down of just a few of the highlights of Invictus. The moment when Matt Damon visits Mandela's old cell and sees the ghost of Mandela superimposed into the shot. Didn't something similar happen in Rocky Balboa? The moment when what sounds like a boy band comes on the soundtrack and starts singing "I'm colourblind" in what must be the worst music cue I'm ever heard in a film. The moment when black hands and white hands together clasp the World Cup. The moment when the black housekeeper realises her white employers have got her a ticket for the world cup final and she turns to the camera giving a smile of such pride... This film is about as subtle as a kick to the nads and it's a shame because it's a real life "too good to be true" story that could have been genuinely inspirational. But Eastwood can't help but ladle more and more icky sentimentality into every last moment, rendering the whole affair naff and corny and oh God I'm picturing the housekeeper's smile again...

Freeman and Damon are fine in roles that, particularly in Damon's case, are really very passive but it all comes back to the cheese. Honking, stinking cheese clogging up the screen.

I've actually got nothing else to say about this film.

I'm colourbliiiiind...

3.5/10

Edge Of Darkness Review

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2/10