Could Have Been A Lot Better.

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2014)

"Crazy Heart", is a very well acted movie. Jeff Bridges is as captivating as ever, and it's cool to finally see him play music on screen as he describes it as a very big passion to him. In a nutshell, a down and out of luck country singer begins to reassess his life. That's pretty much the one sentence plot of the movie, and it doesn't really go into any soul searching or particularly interesting areas that keeps the movie strong throughout its 1 hour 50 minute running time. The movie becomes somewhat extremely captivating while running those music portions, but dips considerably in their absence.
The performances hold things together well enough. Maggie Gyllenhaal is charming on screen as always, however I am getting really tired of her playing these emotionally crippled or mentally ill characters all the time. Colin Farrell is also great, yet he appears for 10 minutes throughout the movie and I can't really say all that much about him.
Overall the film is about redemption, trying to build back a life on a lifetime of drinking and sorrow. I kind of wish that the story was as interesting and as well done as the characters. But sadly your not going to find that here, it's just solid performances and all around decent country music.
Final Verdict: Decent acting, decent strong music but a half baked story will stop "Crazy Heart", appealing to everyone. But to those who will enjoy that are in for a good time. 7/10.