Jeff Bridges is great but....

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2012)

I finally got around to watching this after I enjoyed seeing Jeff Bridges perform a lot of the sound track on Austin City Limits recently.
He really nails the role of an aging, beat up, past his former glory, down on his luck, country singer. At one point I said out loud, "He really is a great actor."
Unfortunately there are quite a few things that keep this movie from his level of performance.
I saw Maggie Gyllenhaal on Charlie Rose recently and really liked her as a person. But this was the first time I'd seen her in a movie.
She was either miscast, misdirected, misedited or maybe she can't act but in this movie she seemed to have two tricks in her acting repertoire...she's often either inexplicably smiling or frowning...and you're left wondering what's behind either look.
Most of her scenes with Bridges felt very uncomfortable...there is absolutely no chemistry between them. Their love scene ends up feeling contrived and awkward and it completely stops the movie cold.
On the other hand the child actor playing Gyllenhaal's son and Bridges seemed to have some chemistry...and those scenes have an engaging genuineness about them.
For some reason Robert Duvall, who I've really liked in a number of other movies, doesn't make his appearance until nearly the end. Then the film vainly tries to establish a long friendship between Bridges and him...with lines where they talk about each other as "old friends" etc.
Duvall also puts on an accent that makes their scenes sound like two guys meeting by chance on the street rather than lifelong friends who've spent lots of time in each other's company. Even the sets and lighting in those scenes look like they're from a different movie...like they were shot and added on by a different director and crew after the movie was already completed.
Still Bridges valiantly shines on.
The end of the movie is just plain tacky. I guess it's supposed to give a warm feeling to an otherwise sad tail of loss...but it is so contrived and it was the final stake to the heart of this movie for me.
Oh well...it's only entertainment. : / : )