Crazy Heart Review

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Crazy Heart

Crazy Heart is the story of Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) a broken down, fading country star, who inbetween travelling to small town gigs, is slowling killing his reputation because of his drinking.  Until one of the towns he plays in he meets young divorcee Jean (Maggie Gyllenahaal), an aspiring journalist who wants to run a story on Blake and find out what has become to this former country star.  They soon fall into a relationship and this spurns on Blake to sort his life out and rebuild his career with a chance in a support slot with his former protege Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell).

Blake manages to hold it together for a while but before soon the cracks begin to show and Blake comes to a crossraods either carry on his self destructive path or get into rehab, sort himself out and put his life and career back together.

Based in part on Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard.  The book is inspired by the life of country singer Hank Thompson.  The film itself manages to incorporate aall of these men to create a towering perfomance in the shape of Bad Blake, thanks in no part by Jeff Bridges who lifts the entire proceedings with a masterful performance which has already garned him some awards and has him currently sitting in the red hot favorite position to carry off the Oscar at the end of March.

The story however is formulaic and would actually be pretty dull if it wasn't for the superb cast.  Jeff Bridges in particular lifts this out of generic rut it could have fallen into.  Add into the mix the ever dependable Robert Duvall as Blakes best friend and Gyllenhaal once again is a pure delight to watch.  More surprisingly Colin Farrell can actually hold a tune and do a decent southern accent as well.  Farrell only appears fleetingly but is totally convincing as the protege who has risen above his mentor and become a superstar (based on Garth Brooks?).

As mentioned about the story and direction Scott Cooper, it drags and if it wasn't for the central performnces you would be looking at a 2 star movie.  Also, if you watch Walk Hard: Thje Dewey Cox Story, you can't help but think they were taking the rise out of this film.  Well worth checking out though as previously mentioned due to the incredible acting performances throughout.  The music is performed by the actors too and Bridges, once again scores highly as his voice sounds like he's been doing it for years.

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