Crazy Heart

Crazy Heart (2009)

Directed by Scott Cooper

Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell

Great story about a washed up alcoholic country singer 'Bad Blake' who finds love, loses it and along the way reconnects to his career, his art, the music. It's a good directorial debut from Cooper but the film is really held together by Bridges' stellar performance; warts and all he plays Bad Blake to the rock'n'roll tee. This alcoholic protagonist is Bridges best turn since Lebowski in my opinion. Jeff sings in this film and his voice is superb, really I mean this - he sounds very much like Charlie Rich. I was very impressed by the music overall; T Bone Burnett was in charge of the songs/music and it is so well done/integrated you 100% believe Bridges when he is up on stage sweating and singing.

I'm not a big fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal, she is a very competent actor who always plays it cold and I find it hard to fall in love with her characters. I couldn't connect to her in this film, she seemed worlds apart from Bad Blake not only in age but in manner; it pulled me out of the love story. In this film she plays a single mom with a kid who connects to Bad Blake until he loses the child in a Mall; to me that was a cheap shot to break the relationship and further distanced me from Maggie's character. When Bad Blake gets sober she still turns him away and gets married to someone else within a year - this left me cold.

The film's big dramatic arc is how Bad Blake comes to terms with his alcoholism and gets back on track with his career.. The love story was filler device to try and make you feel, but the story didnt need it and the device didn't work. Colin Farrell appears a country star and gives one of the most jittery performances of his career. Still a good film that I would recommend everyone go see.