Meandering pandering...

Rating: 2/10 (1 June 2010)

I'm a Jeff Bridges fan; have been since I saw him in movies like THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and HALLS OF ANGER- but this overblown, meandering mess of a movie makes me wonder what it was I saw in him in the first place. But it's not Bridges; it's the ridiculous writing and the lackluster film-making that conspire to dull the sheen by dulling the senses: CRAZY HEART is professional pandering at its worst. Every cardboard character goes through his or her paces at a snail's pace- and every step of the way, we see what we've seen before, again and again. In FAT CITY, Bridges was the young up-and-comer who doesn't quite have what it takes to make a go of it in one of the toughest professions on this planet (professional boxing); in CRAZY HEART, aided and abetted by one of the lamest songs you're ever likely to hear, he's an over-the-hill down-and-outer who probably (judging by the song) never made it in the Big Time. It's a lackluster performance. Still, one can take some small consolation from the thought that Jeff Bridges the actor still has more than a few good performances left in him.