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