Does Bridges steal the show? Well frankly yes.

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2011)

On the surface, it all looks very clichéd. Bad Blake is a drunken, dirty country musician who's drowned his undeniable talents with gallons of whisky, reduced to playing small-time bars and bowling alleys. On the road he falls in love with young journalist Jean Craddock and is forced to assess his life of hard living and get back on the wagon.
So far, so conventional. It's a story that's been told across a range of movies. Except those movies don't have Jeff Bridges going for them.
Bridges, a man so likable he could sleep with your wife and kidnap your kids on Christmas Day and you still couldn't be mad with him, delivers a truly fantastic performance. On paper, Bad Blake is a figure we've seen a million times before, but the layers Bridges brings to the part create one of the most engaging characters in recent memory. Just as we see flashes of brilliance from Bad on stage, we see glimpses of his human side also, and it would take a very cold and miserable tosser indeed to not find the scenes of him bonding with Jean's son Buddy genuinely heart-warming.
Does Bridges steal the show? Well frankly yes. But the supporting cast do a fine job nonetheless. Gyllenhaal is great as the single mother who has been screwed over by men time and time again. Indeed, Jean doesn't throw her arms around Bad right away, and even at the couple's happiest times Gyllenaal brings a subdued sense of unease that underlies her character and gives realism to what at first seems an implausible relationship.
The appearance of Robert Duvall half-way through is a welcome one, like seeing an old friend. The 79 year old is reliable as ever, and after a terrific scene with Duvall and Bridges fishing together I only wished that he could have been given more to do.
Maybe the biggest surprise about the film is Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet, Bad's former protégé who has since gone on to have considerable success in his own right as a pop-country star. Farrell is the classic case of great actor who stars in bad movies. That dud sex tape is probably one of the better pieces of film he's been in. But his performance in Crazy Heart is impressive, managing to make a man painted as a villain in the film's early stages actually seem rather decent and eager to get his troubled former mentor back on track. Let's just say I didn't want to punch Farrell in the face, which is a testament to how good he is in this film.
Great as the performances are, the, well, heart of Crazy Heart is the music. I know as much about country music as I do about thrash jazz- fusion dubstep, but the songs in Crazy Heart are undeniably gorgeous whatever you think about their genre. It's fun to hear Bad play the songs in the live settings, seeing Bad alone with his guitar in his basement, sweet melodies pouring out of a broken man, is when the true beauty of the songs emerge. Bad memorably claims that his songs come from "life, unfortunately" and this is clear with every note Bridges sings.
While the plot is unremarkable, it's simple and direct at the same time, much like one of Bad's songs. It's hard to criticise Scott Cooper too much for unashamedly centring his film around Jeff Bridges' performance when Bridges is that damn good. And let's face it, Bridges has never been that flashy, set-chewing kind of actor - the leisurely pace set by Cooper allows Bridges to shine more brightly rather than hinder him. And that, I can abide.