Ed reviews 'Crazy Heart'
by Ed Johnson-OttArticle Tools
4 stars, (PG-13)
You're going to be hearing a lot about Crazy Heart over the next few weeks. Jeff Bridges won Best Actor in a Drama at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards for his starring role in the film. On Tuesday, February 2 at 8:30 a.m. EST, he will be nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award and will likely snag the trophy from A Single Man's Colin Firth and Up In the Air's George Clooney when the Oscars are presented on March 7. During the next few weeks, you will hear some people say that, while Bridges fully deserves the award, the movie is only mediocre. A few will say that the trophy will really be a lifetime achievement award for Bridges, one of the most respected and beloved actors in the business. Bridges deserves the Oscar, both for the film and as a lifetime achievement award. He's been nominated four times before, for The Last Picture Show (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Starman (1984) and The Contender (2000). In addition to those movies, Bridges also appeared in such films as The Last American Hero, King Kong (the less said about this one the better), Heaven's Gate, Tron, Against All Odds, Tucker: A Man and His Dream, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Fisher King, the remarkable Fearless, White Squall, The Big Lebowski (which more than makes up for King Kong), Arlington Road, The Door in the Floor and Iron Man. That should take care of any debate on whether or not he deserves a lifetime achievement award. Besides, he's been the coolest, nicest guy in the room for longer than most of you have been alive. Now about Crazy Heart: The story, which focuses on boozy Bad Blake, a legendary country singer whose career has fizzled to the point that he now plays bowling alleys, is familiar (Tender Mercies, anyone?), but so what? The classic Hoosiers is an underdog sports movie, but I don't hear anyone bitching about that. Director Scott Cooper, who wrote the screenplay based on Thomas Cobb's novel, has crafted a film that, for the most part, transcends its genre through well-written characters and scenes that feel true to the individuals, the circumstances and the contemporary Southwest settings. Cooper stumbles into cliché-ville during a scene where Bridges' character goes on an outing with his lady friend's young son. But Bridges' performance saves even that scene. He is so specific that Bad Blake becomes a full-fledged person, and it doesn't matter how familiar the scene may be, because it's happening to someone we know. Maggie Gyllenhaal also contributes a strong, specific performance as Jean Craddock, a reporter prone to codependency who gets involved with Blake. Colin Farrell is impressive as Tommy Sweet, a white-hot Tim McGraw-type singer whose mentor was/is Blake. Farrell's accent is flawless and his character is one rarely seen in fallen singer films — a superstar who is still a decent person. Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies, anyone?) plays Blake's pal Wayne, taking the standard best friend role and fleshing it out through his behavior, with nary a word about the man's background. Bridges and Farrell do their own singing and they sound great. Singer Ryan Bingham wrote most the tunes (he also appears in the film as Tony) and I just now saved this article while I jumped over and ordered the soundtrack. Crazy Heart is a four-star film with several five-star performances. I would happily have sat in the theater for another hour or two had the movie been longer. I liked Bad Blake and Jean and Wayne and Tommy that much. I believed in their reality that much.
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