My Review: Crazy Heart (8/10)

¨Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try…Whiskey has been a thorn on your side and it doesn`t forget the highway that calls for your heart inside. And this ain`t no place for the weary kind.¨

(8/10) Those lyrics are from The Weary Kind, the theme song of the film Crazy Heart, which was composed by T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham. The song has been nominated for the Oscars and in my opinion it has a good chance of winning. But who really has the biggest chance of taking an award for this movie is Jeff Bridges for his performance as a washed up country singer known as Bad Blake. Last year Mickey Rourke showed us some wrestling moves, and this year Bridges shows us some musical talent. If you`ve seen both these movies then you understand that comparisons between them can`t be ignored. In The Wrestler Mickey Rourke used to be a wrestling star who struggled with health issues and when his career seemed to be going downward he met a girl that changed his life, while in Crazy Heart Jeff Bridges`s character goes through a similar phase because he is at his lowest point of his career when his life is changed around after he meets a female journalist. The outcome is different this time but the memories from a nostalgic past are very similar in both cases. This is Scott Cooper`s first film as a director after having acted in Gods and Generals and Austin Powers. He also wrote the adaptation of Crazy Heart from Thomas Cobb´s novel of the same name.

Crazy Heart focuses on the life of Otis Blake, better known by his artistic name Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), a washed up country music legend who now has to settle for small gigs in bars, and yes, even bowling alleys. The opening scene reminded me a lot of one of Bridges`s better known characters, the Dude from the Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski. He was also a heavy drinker and always hung out in bowling alleys, but this time his character is very different even though he is a heavy drinker as well. Blake has a serious problem with his drinking and shows up drunk in most of his shows. His career seems to be going downward along with his personal life due to all the smoke and alcohol he drowns himself into, until he meets a journalist named Jean (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal from The Dark Knight and Donnie Darko) with whom a nice relationship develops. Jean has a four year old boy named Buddy (Jack Nation) who seems to get along really well with Blake. Things begin to look better for Blake when he receives a call from his manager telling him if he wants to open for Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrel from In Bruges and Miami Vice), the country music star of the moment. Blake hesitates at first because Tommy used to be his touring partner and he taught him everything there was to know about the business. Now that Tommy is a big shot he doesn`t want to do a record with him so Blake has hard feelings toward him. Oddly enough when we meet Tommy we discover he is nothing like Blake described him and is actually very grateful for everything that Blake taught him. His record company won`t allow him to make a record with Blake, but he offers him to write music for him. Blake is still resentful and continues struggling with alcohol until one day he has a car accident which makes him stay at home for a while and off the road. The doctor tells him that if he continues on the same path he is not going to live much longer. Another interesting character in this film is Wayne (Robert Duvall who also was a producer of this movie) who is one of his better friends from back home. Jean and Wayne are pretty much the only people he has a relationship with, but can any of them help him recover from his problems or is it just too late to make a change?

I really enjoyed the soundtrack of this movie and it reminded me a lot of my days in Nashville. There are a lot of good country songs, many of which are performed really well by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrel themselves. Along with Walk The Line and Almost Famous, it is one of the best films about the music industry. It also proves that it is never too late to make a change in your life no matter how bad you have messed it up. I really liked the story and the message, but what really makes this film standout is Bridges`s performance. He is just great and definitely deserves the Oscar for best performance this year. Gyllenhaal was also good although I don`t think she will win the award for best supporting actress. Colin Farrel and Robert Duvall have received less credit because they were outshined by those performances, but I think they were really good as well. This is a good movie, one that you cannot miss if you like country music. Even if you don`t like the music the story works and it is just worth your time for Bridges`s performance alone.