Jeff Bridges!

Rating: 8/10 (10 March 2010)

After a long and successful career Jeff Bridges has finally won an Oscar for his performance as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. Bad Blake is a washed up country star, performing in bars across the south-west of America: it doesn't gt much lower then performing in a bar at a bowling alley. He is an alcoholic, a chain smoker, in poor health, has a string of failed marriages and estranged from his son. But Bad has some ray of light in his world, first is he gets to perform at a concert for a successful country star, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), who asks if Bad could write songs for him for his new album; second is forming a relationship with Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist for a small town paper. Bad and Jean's relationship quickly develops and Bad becomes a surrogate father for Jean's four year old son Buddy, wonderfully played by Jack Nation. Bad starts to write again, but his old ways make Bad his own worst enemy.
This film had all the trapping of being a cliché, with all the old stuff, like alcoholism and a troubled father son relationship. Some critics have compared Crazy Heart with The Wrestler, following a similar story. They are also similarities with This is Spinal Tap (if it was done as a serious film) and the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. Both obviously great film. Despite this built in disadvantage Scott Cooper shows himself to be a competent writer/director. He keeps the film going at a comfortable pace, gives the audience engaging characters, and give the film a more grounded, realistic feel, compared to the usual Hollywood formula. Cooper directs some good musical set-pieces, like the concert, and shows that he can give the film some heart.
Even though Scott Cooper did a good job and hopefully should have a long career, Crazy Heart is an actor's film, like Closer and Frost/Nixon. This was Jeff Bridges' film, winning an Oscar for his career. He gives a excellent performance as the worn down singer who just drinks to mask the pain. Bad doesn't star out as a likable character but he grows and is shown to be a complex character. Maggie Gyllenhaal also offers a good performance in this film as a woman looking for love, thinking she found it with Bad. She deserved her Best Supporting Actress nod. Colin Farrell too is good in am almost cameo role, (did that actually come out right?) His role could have been easily made out as a typical villain, but Cooper avoided that.
A solid film and a strong 7.5 out of 10.