Bridges makes Heart great

Crazy Heart
DIRECTED BY: Scott
Cooper
STARRING: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell
CERT: 15A

THE great Jeff Bridges and his Oscar-nominated performance are the real story of Crazy Heart and rightly so,­ though that is probably a little unfair on Maggie Gylenhaal, who does a very good job with her role in the movie’s doomed romance.
Without them, Crazy Heart would be little more than a run-of-the-mill yarn about a fading, self-destructive star who gets one more shot at redemption. Indeed, even with their fine talents on board along with the excellent Robert Duval and a surprisingly watchable Colin Farrell, it sometimes struggles to rise above the well-worn and ordinary.
Bridges plays Bad Blake, an ageing country star who’s fallen a long way from his former fame. A chain-smoking alcoholic who hasn’t written a good song in years, Bad Blake now lives on the road, a bottom rung entertainer who’s a regular on the bowling alley circuit – where a good gig is a show he can get through without vomiting. Or where one of his few remaining fans offers him her number and some company for the night.
He’s heading for our old friend the early grave. It’s only a question of what gets him first – the fags or the booze.
Then he meets Jean (Gyllenhaal), a journalist who wants to do a story on him. She asks the questions he’s heard a thousand times and he trots out some of the tired old story that includes four failed marriages and a son he hasn’t known since he was a child.
But this interview gets a tad more personal than most and, despite having plenty of reasons not to including her beloved four-year-old boy ­ Jean takes a chance on loving the washed-up old warrior.
Bad Blake is also thrown a rope by young country music sensation Tommy Sweet (Farrell), who’s never forgotten his old mentor and now wants Bad Blake to write some songs for him with plenty of money on offer for his efforts.
Ah, the famous old heartbreaking set-up. Can a man like Blake really get it together enough to make the most of good fortune? And can the love of a good woman save him from himself? Or will it all end in the usual tears?
Crazy Heart has been called “this year’s The Wrestler” and the similarities are pretty obvious. While it doesn’t have the strength or emotional depth of that film, it’s a worthy effort by actor Scott Cooper, directing his first feature from a script he adapted from Thomas Cobb’s old novel, ­ by all accounts a more grim affair than the movie.
There are times when he’s a bit heavy-handed and he can’t seem to help himself throwing everything at you to make you see just how bad a human train wreck Bad Blake is.
But whatever subtlety Cooper lacks, Bridges brings to the party in bucket loads. He doesn’t simply play a burnt-out star who’s been to too many places and seen too much, he becomes Bad Blake, a man whose life is a long, sad country song on repeat.
It helps, too, that he has a fine singing voice, the kind you might hear once or twice a year in your local music hall, coming from a man who was maybe a legend when you were young, but now tours places like rural Ireland to pay the bills. Or fund his bad habits.
It doesn’t hurt when a film about a musician has a few good tunes to show off and Bridges has some good original songs to work with here written by T-Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton.
Crazy Heart is Bridges’ movie for sure and while you can never overestimate the clowns in the Academy, the Oscar should already have his name on it.
But his co-stars are no slouches. I’ve long been an admirer of Maggie Gyllenhaal and I’m sure I’d say she was wonderful in anything, but she really is very good as the non-judgmental young lover, the kind of subtle, well-crafted leading lady character that’s rare in the movies.
Colin Farrell’s character, too, is stronger than the easy cliché he might have been and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t cringe when Farrell opened his mouth to speak. And though he doesn’t get much time, Robert Duval still shines as Bad Blake’s old friend, who lets the washed-up singer play at his bar.
There’s not a lot that’s original in Crazy Heart, but for the fine performances alone, it deserves a look.