Crazy Heart (2009)
Crazy Heart(USA) Directed by Scott Cooper Written by Scott Cooper Starring Jeff Bridges; Maggie Gyllenhaal; Robert Duvall; Colin Farrell; Jack Nation; Paul Herman; James Keane
Sixty year old Jeff Bridges, the architect of memorable characters like Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski from The Big Lebowski; Jack Baker from The Fabulous Baker Boys; President Jack Evans from The Contender ; and Duane Jackson from The Last Picture Show , sometimes gets overlooked when discussions of our finest actors take place, perhaps because his work is so naturalistic that there may be a tendency to forget he is acting.
Son of Lloyd; brother of Beau, Bridges has been plying his trade since the age of two, working steadily and consistently - first on TV, then in film. The California native has been married for thirty years to the same woman, fathered three children, and is something of a renaissance man with a penchant for photography, illustration, and music (he even recorded an album, Be Here Soon, in 2000).
Here, he stars as Houston based Otis “Bad” Blake, a hard drinking/smoking/womanizing country singer/ songwriter in the mode of Townes Van Zandt (whose music is on the soundtrack) or Kris Kristofferson, with a little Hank Williams; Johnny Cash; and/or Waylon Jennings thrown in for good measure. Riddled with poor health; married multiple times; estranged from a son he never took care of or saw, Bad is enmeshed in the down-slope of a once successful career, playing in dive bars for those who want to re-live his hits from long ago. Bridges is truly potent as Bad, his wild hair, beefy frame, booze-soaked skin, and bloodshot eyes merely the most visible signs of a messy life lived on the edge.
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Jean Craddock, a single mother and music reporter from Santa Fe New Mexico, who is decades younger then the fifty seven year old song man, but has endured her share of heartache. The two, along with Jean’s four year old son, Buddy (Jack Nation), enter into a relationship that serves as the core of the film. Robert Duvall (who helped produce; and who himself played a country crooner with a sordid personal past, Mac Sledge, in 1983s Tender Mercies) is Bad’s older friend/employer, bar owner Wayne, and Colin Farrell takes a small role as a famous singer Tommy Sweet, who got his start in Bad’s band. Though Tommy is the source of Bad’s jealousy and resentment, he too provides the grizzled bad boy an opportunity at artistic relevance and perhaps even some form of personal redemption.
Partnering with Stephen Bruton, the music was done by T-Bone Burnett (O Brother Where Art Thou), and the soundtrack includes contributions from George Jones; Buck Owens; the aforementioned Van Zandt and Jennings; and relative newcomer, Texan Ryan Bingham, who wrote the theme song The Weary Kind. Bridges had previously worked with Burnett and Bruton on Heaven’s Gate (1980), Michael Cimino’s classic commercial flop. In that film, long time friends and collaborators Bruton and Burnett were part of the on screen band, while Bridges was one of the lead actors. Bruton, who was dying of cancer at the time of Crazy Heart’s filming (and died some time after its completion), became something of a model for Bridges, who used some of Bruton’s experiences and characteristics in shaping Bad.
The plot is hardly innovative, and there is some lack of delving into the source(s) of Bad’s pain that ultimately keeps the film out of the realm of cinema classic. First time director, actor Scott Cooper (who also adapted the Thomas Cobb novel), doesn’t stray far from other films with similar subject matter like Nashville; Payday; (the previously mentioned) Tender Mercies; Songwriter; Forty Shades of Blue, and various other country music biopics that have mined similar territory, but the music is solid, and Bridges’ performance is good enough to help distinguish this one as among the best of a solid bunch.