Great Performances and Music

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2010)

Crazy Heart (2009)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Jeff Bridges picked up his Oscar for this portrayal of Bad Blake, a country-music star who is an alcoholic and finds his later days playing bowling alleys and other small venues. He meets a female reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who he begins an affair with as he slowly tries to pick up the pieces. This isn't the greatest film ever made but I don't think that was the goal or intent. It's strange but it seems like this movie was put together simply to build a great role for Bridges and you know going in that this is the type of role that he could do in his sleep. Everything in the film is clearly built around it and it should come to no shock that we've seen this type of material before, most recently in the previous years THE WRESTLER. With that said, people should be coming to this film to see a great performance, which they do get. They should also be expecting to hear some great music, which they do. The music and performances are top-notch here and I was a little surprised to see my foot jamming along with the music as it played. Bridges, who does his own singing, as the perfect voice for this material and he really hits a home run in terms of his vocal performance. His singing sounds exactly like what you'd expect from this character and he is magnificent in terms of the singing. As for his performance, it's exceptional as well as he hits all the right notes with this character. The mannerisms, the worn-down body and even the way he simply walks perfectly shows off this beaten character. This is the type of role that Bridges could do without much effort but you can see all the energy and fire he's putting into it. He's surrounding by an attractive cast with Gyllenhaal turning in another fine performance as the woman Bad falls for. She gives a very sensitive performance and the screenplay does her character justice by keeping her very strong in the end. Colin Farrell doesn't come off as good simply because of a simple miscast. He's good here but you just have a very hard time believing him in the role of a country music singer. Producer Robert Duvall has a nice supporting bit as well. We've seen this type of movie before and the screenplay really doesn't throw us anything original but that's not really that big of a problem since everything is so well-made and performed. Fans of Bridges and the old-time country music should really eat this film up as its a tribute to a genre of music that isn't around much as well as a tribute to a great actor given a great character.