Classically good

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2010)

No special effects, no car chases, no gratuitous sex. What you have here is a great movie that didn't need any of those things to make it great. What it does have is a great story, great theme, fantastic music, beautiful location cinematography and excellent acting from incredible actors. Based on a story (of the same name) by Thomas Cobb, it tells the story of a has-been country singer, Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), how he faces the mistakes and mess he's made of his life, and how he turns it around. Jeff Bridges, who has always been a fine actor, gives his finest performance ever and deserves to win the Oscar for which he's been nominated. Maggie Gyllenhaal is excellent as the love interest who cannot bring herself to jeopardize the life she has with her son by believing in Bad Blake's reformation. Robert Duvall, though in a small part, is of course as good as ever. The only casting choice that bothered me is Colin Farrell as the "rival" country singer. Colin Farrell? As an American traditional country singer? OK, whatever. Actually, I thought he gave a good performance in an admittedly small role... but he still seems like an odd choice for the part. Both Farrell and Bridges had an "accent coach", and both did a good job with their southern accents. I was pleased to find that Jeff Bridges actually did his own singing, and he was quite good. I intend to get the soundtrack for my iPod. The songs were traditional country-type songs, a nice change from the path country music has gone down in the past 10 years. It was filmed mostly in New Mexico (which of course, being from New Mexico, I enjoyed immensely.) One of the concerts was supposed to be at a Pavilion in Phoenix... ha! Phoenix never looked so good. It was here in Albuquerque and the frequent shots of our Sandia Mountains were fantastic. (I have to say though that it was totally unrealistic to think that a reporter in Santa Fe could have afforded the beautiful home that Gyllenhaal's character lived in... Santa Fe's inflated cost of living due to the influx of Hollywood's stars makes it impossible for middle class people to live in homes that beautiful. But who would know that if you don't live here?) The scenes in Blake's home in Houston were excellent, getting to the meat of the theme of the movie, and Jeff Bridges totally nailed the part here. I thought they could have delved more into the rehab scenes; it was just not enough to make you believe how hard rehab must be... but the scenes leading up to rehab were perfect. All in all, this is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, because it tells a good story, and isn't that what movies are supposed to be? Good stories, interesting, well-acted characters, great scenery and a perfect soundtrack; it doesn't get any better than that.