“Drinking. Songs.”
In “Crazy Heart” Jeff Bridges plays a has-been country singer/songwriter by the name of Bad Blake in a performance that can only be described as an impersonation of Kris Kristofferson playing this role. In real life Bridges is no stranger to music, having released his own albums in the past, notably 2000’s “Be Here Soon” which was a collaboration with The Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald. So it’s no surprise that Bridges does his own singing in this film.
The real surprise is when Colin Farrell shows up as a country singing star by the name of Tommy Sweet who was mentored by Blake. While Sweet’s career took off, Blake’s career sank into an ocean of alcoholism. In fact, the best way to describe “Crazy Heart” is that there is drinking, and there are country songs.
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a single mother and small town newspaper reporter who is granted an interview with Bad Blake. Though she looks young enough to be Bridges’ granddaughter, the two fall in love and their love scenes in bed are a bit creepy. (And this movie is coming from a country that wants to prosecute Roman Polanski?)
The performances are all very strong, including a cameo by the ever-reliable Robert Duvall. But the film falls apart in its second half when Bridges takes Gyllenhaal’s 4-year old son to a shopping mall and loses him. Alcoholism is to blame for Bridges’ irresponsibility, even though he isn’t drunk during the incident which is clearly the fault of the child. The movie never corrects this, so I’m not sure what message it’s trying to send about alcoholism. It’s at this point that the movie takes a wrong turn down a dead-end alley.
A lot of top talent has placed a lot of trust in first-time director Scott Cooper. Though Cooper does manage to get great performances from his stars, these actors are talented and experienced enough to give great performances without needing much direction. Cooper shows promise as a director, but he will require better scripts than this before he can make better movies.
DVD Double Feature: A better movie about country music is 1992’s “Pure Country” which stars real-life country singer George Strait as a fictional country star who disappears in the middle of a high-profile tour to revisit his rural past incognito. The tour goes on with a stand-in for Strait hidden by dark lighting and stage fog. But the stand-in soon wants to become a star himself, so he threatens to expose the cover-up. Oh, and yes, Strait does do his own singing in the film.
