Bridges lifts paper thin plot.

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2010)

Hard living Bad Blake is well on the downside of his career as he plays one night stands in small clubs and bowling alleys around the Southwest. Demon alcohol has taken its toll on the once gifted singer songwriter as he stumbles from show to show working with pick up bands and leaving mid song to vomit backstage before returning to finish.
This country western version of The Wrestler has little to go on save for the touching performance of Jeff Bridges as Blake. Bridges has always had an unpretentious amiability that registers with audiences and as Bad he brings it to another level displaying a solid country voice to go along with his scruffy persona. But Bridges heavyweight performance cannot sustain the lightweight script.
Director Scott Cooper shoots most of Heart in close-up and while it is effective in conveying Blakes state it becomes all too revealing in displaying the limited abilities of Maggie Gylenhaal as the love interest. Displaying the same vapid style and delivery that made Diane Keaton a star she is both miscast and unconvincing as Cooper bores in on her button blue eyes for power and introspection but instead magnifies her vacuity and how far out of her depth she is opposite Bridges. Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell also chip in with uninspired performances as Cooper does little to build on their relationship (particularly Farrell) with Blake. He's content to have them toss around cliché ridden dialog without getting too deep beneath the surface with his paint by the numbers storyline.
It's a shame Crazy Heart plays it safe with Blake's difficult but always likable character. It might have soared if Bad was a bit more cantankerous and surly. It would have given the film a much needed shot of adrenalin and made for a more taut and powerful drama that for the most part limps along like a dreary country tune on your car radio two hundred miles from home.