Crazy Heart
Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) lives up to his nickname. He smokes and drinks and bangs groupies and slops around his existence like an exhausted walrus. When he gets on stage, however, his music sings to the heart and the sky, his clear voice full of life and emotion and genuine affection for his fans – and his small but devoted audiences applaud wildly. Blake is a broken-down legend, the Wrangler of Love driving his 1978 Silverado Bessie across the Southwest to play in bars and bowling alleys for whiskey money. His protégé Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, believe it or not) is living large with trucks and roadies and stadium shows – and nothing but affection for Blake, who won’t have it.
When Blake agrees to an interview with local reporter Maggie Gyllenhaal, his life begins to shift under his feet. The plot parallels of Crazy Heart and The Wrestler are difficult to ignore, but country music exacts a different price from a man than pro wrestling does. I would even argue that Bad is even more self-destructive than Randy. Gyllenhaal sees the man inside the shell that Blake has become and they strike up a sort of random but intense and lonely relationship. When we finally meet Farrell (his songs sung by Ryan Bingham, though Farrell’s Texas accent is impeccable), he really seems to be as Sweet as Blake is Bad. We can’t begrudge him his success when it’s increasingly evident that Blake’s decline is his own choice. People really still love him, but it’s not enough. He hits snooze on so many wake-up calls that I began to turn a little on him too, right when I should have been rooting for him.
Watching alcoholics stumble through their lives is sometimes a little boring, though Jeff Bridges is a warm and detailed enough actor to keep us interested and full of hope for him. Perhaps Thomas Cobb’s novel lets us into Blake’s mind more than the film, because I had trouble connecting to him – much more trouble than Bridges alone could manage with all his talents. The epilogue lacks the punch it could have had as a result. Perhaps director/screenwriter Scott Cooper wanted us to feel how people who are close to alcoholics feel: wary, unwilling to trust, shut out. If so, well done – but it builds walls around the actors the audience cannot scale.
Jeff Bridges is wonderful to watch and the gorgeous photography by Barry Markowitz evokes the wild beauty of the Southwest vividly. The songs are very nice and Ferrell does a great job being a Texas country boy made big. It’s worth seeing.
MPAA R-language and brief sexuality
Release date 12/16/09
Time in minutes 111
Director Scott Cooper
Studio Fox Searchlight
