Jeff Bridges is the face of Crazy Heart, made by first-time writer-director Scott Cooper and adapted from Thomas Cobb’s 1987 novel. The fantastic soundtrack, which celebrates a classic country sound too far removed from the billboard charts, has also garnered critical praise.Indeed, Bridges’ earnest portrayal of Bad Blake and the soundtrack by T. Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham serves to enrich the film’s been-there-done-that storyline.
The film takes us right into the gutter that is Bad Blake’s sullied career, as he arrives at a slimy bowling alley for his latest gig and the owner won’t even let him have a free drink from the bar. Ironic that it opens in the same location as the film that featured Bridges’ most popular role, The Big Lebowski.
Bad Blake, a 57-year-old dazed but genial alcoholic, is an empty-pocketed country singer who hasn’t written a song in three years. He has few relations besides his manager and a bartending chum played by Robert Duvall (also a producer, who played a key part in getting the film made). He’s touring bottom-rung America with a decades-old set list and a bottle of whiskey. In Santa Fe, Blake meets Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a writer for a local paper, and then finds out he’s going to be the thankless opening act for his mentee-turned-big shot Tommy Sweet (Colin Farell in an uncredited cameo).
Like any unethical, star struck journalist, Jean sleeps with him on the second night of interviews. They fall for one another and Blake playfully bonds with her 4-year-old son at the same time that he’s nursing a hangover, a hallmark of the alcoholic’s daily routine.
Behind the cowboy hat, grizzly beard and sunglasses lays that burnt-out rock star daze. Blake is seen suffering a minor concussion from a car accident and running to vomit in a tin trash can outside in the middle of a performance. He’s been married four times (though his wives are never seen) and is desperately in need of an intervention for his alcohol abuse, but all this seems rather tame. Even as a character study, Crazy Heart is absent of a steady conflict.
Award recognition for Bridge’s performance largely spawns from this being the right time in his multifarious career. He does a fine job with the role, but on paper, this character is a bonafide cookie-cutter stereotype of the rock musician has-been. And though Bridges elevates Blake to multi-dimensional depth, the life of this singer remains relatively unremarkable. It could have helped to include peak moments in his past.
Though Mickey Rourke did not win an Oscar last year for The Wrestler, these two films, their powerhouse leads and the respective plot arcs unmistakably stack up. But, as a contrast, Randy “The Ram” Robinson was on a deadline as his failing heart put his life on a decidedly short leash. He then makes a concerted effort to reconnect with his estranged daughter and find new love in a caring stripper. In the scheme of Crazy Heart’s narrative, Blake’s attempts to reconnect with his estranged son and control his addictions and vices are far less urgent.
There’s a great moment when Jean interviews Blake about “today’s world of artificial country” – Tommy Sweet’s brand of country – and Blake shrugs it off. Much of Crazy Heart has previously appeared on television and film, but any sound commentary on the ‘new wave’ of country in popular culture has not.
The Golden Globe-winning principal track “The Weary Kind,” a terrific, old-fashioned country ballad, is teased to us in preview-form throughout. Blake is seen writing the lyrics and practicing the melody so as to be later performed by country-pop superstar Tommy Sweet.
Cooper’s debut takes on the tour of a musician’s life from one glass of whiskey to the next, but we feel few of the dizzying effects. This compelling if uneventful film is carried by strong acting and impressive songs despite its thoroughly straight-laced plot.
6 of 10