Whiskey and women; the life of a country music star

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2010)

Crazy Heart stars Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, a country music singer whose glory days are behind him. He plays bars and bowling alleys, drinking and smoking his way into oblivion. At a two day stint in Santa Fe, Bad meets Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), an young reporter trying find her story. Just like a country song, the two fall for each other.
Not all is well in the life of Bad Blake. His drinking and smoking habits have him on the ropes and he is always reminded of his former apprentice, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), and how successful he is. The two had a falling out and went their separate ways. Every day seems to be a reminder of what was and what could be, but might not be. Instead of sitting down and writing some more tunes, Bad finds solace in his never empty bottle of booze.
Bad gets a shot at something special both in his career and in his love life. Jean offers some stability and Bad gets an offer to perform as Tommy's opening act, a sort of slap in the face to Bad, but it's a paycheck. He and Tommy reminisce about the old days of singing and drinking. With Jean and her young son, Bad finds a nice home, at least for a little while. Things go from better to worse when his drinking gets him in more trouble than he can chew.
The story is a reminder of embracing the moment. Bad goes through his life mostly or partially intoxicated, missing a lot of good things and passing up on some potentially beneficial situations. Bridges gives his best performance in years. He is almost a serious Jeff Lebowski, a character he made famous in the 90s in Joel and Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski. We sympathize with Bad Blake, though we never really feel sorry because it is his own fault really for being the way he is.
Gyllenhaal gives a solid performance, as do Farrell in Robert Duvall, both taking smaller less significant roles. The real winner of this movie isn't the acting (though without Bridges, the film would not be nearly as good). The far and away best part of this movie is the music. Original tracks by T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton, Ryan Bingham, Gary Nicholson, and Greg Brown. In These men put together a fantastic collection of well written and musically enticing tracks. The theme from the film entitled "The Weary Kind" is one of the best original songs I've heard in a long time. Bingham and Burnett wrote it and Bingham performs it. His voice is crackly, as if he has been singing for 30 years or so. In reality Bingham is in his late 20s, but his voice is that of a veteran singer. It's a beautiful song and a perfect addition to the film. Other tracks like "Fallin and Flying", "Gone, gone, gone" and "Hold on you" are fantastic.
Overall a very good film. Bridges takes care of the acting portion and the rest is taken over by the music. Not that the rest of the film is particularly weak, I just think that those two pieces of the film are the strongest and stand out the most. It's a great story that people who are fans of country music will devour. I hope those people out there opposed to country music will give this film a shot. It will be well worth it.