Based on the Thomas Cobb novel of the same name, Crazy Heart tells the story of Bad Blake (Bridges), an aging country music singer who bares the emotional and physical scars of a life that has been made up of too many marriages, far too long on the road and an over abundance of whiskies along the way. However despite ending up playing in bowling alley bars to small collections of aging fans, Bad can’t help but reach out for a new reason to go on through a chance encounter with Jean (Gyllenhaal), a small-town journalist who longs to discover the real man behind the songs.
Now, for some people there will be too much music and not enough complex storylines and subplots, for others it will be vice versa, however for me it was the perfect blend of drama and melody. As the story unfolds we see this old broken down country musician stuck playing the songs that had previously brought him glory while blocked from any inspiration by the constant search for meaning at the bottom of his whisky glass. Jeff Bridges does play Bad Blake, he is Bad Blake. At no moment in this film do you not believe that Bridges is this aging and trapped musician. His acting performance is backed up thoroughly by his musical performance. When he grabs his guitar and stumbles out in front of his make shift backing band, hammering out the riffs as he leans in to the microphone and growls out these country lyrics wrought with pain, loss and failure, you can’t help but feel as though you are watching the real thing.
Now for his directorial debut, Scott Cooper has wonderfully captured the dry and dusty scenery that reeks of the country sound. From the dry, barren and long highways that Blake must drive between gigs, through to the still untamed wild of Sante Fe. Overall the cinematic components fit together well with the strong element of the music. In most films the music is just a part of the background, helping to get you into certain emotional zones as you travel through the storyline. That part is here in Crazy Heart but the role of the music reaches far beyond that of background fill. From the live performance through to the scenes of Blake at home struggling to find the words to express in a song what he is feeling in his own struggles, the songs featured are by far the best supporting member of the cast. From the honest and reflective lyrics of “Funny how falling feels like flying for a little while” comes an honesty that you would swear have come from another musicians back catalogue. However most of these songs were written for this film by Award winning producer/composer T-Bone Burnett and the late Texan songwriter Stephen Bruton.
As the music director for the film, T-Bone Burnett also spent long hours work-shopping not only the songs but also the performance styles and mannerisms with Bridges to ensure that they fully captured the feel of the fictional character of Bad Blake.
Now although there are no real surprises in the storyline of Crazy Heart it is an endearing story that follows the downs and ups and more downs of a man whom you can’t help but fall for, with the desperate hope that he can pull it together and find what it is that he has been searching for all along.
Reviewed by: Jon E Clist
Releases: 25th February 2010
Rating: M Offensive Language
Running time: 111 minutes
Genre: Drama
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall & Colin Farrell.
Director: Scott Cooper (Directorial Debut)
Written by Scott Cooper (based on the novel by Thomas Cobb)
