I’m playing catchup with the Oscar nominated movies.
I like to see the best picture nominees before the broadcast, as well as the ones nominated for the best acting categories. I hadn’t seen “Crazy Heart” yet, and since it was nominated for best actor (Jeff Bridges) and supporting actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal), I thought I should check it out.
“Crazy Heart” reminded me a lot of “The Wrestler”. It’s about an older man, past his prime, trying to make a living off of what he used to be famous for. He’s struggling with addiction, is estranged from his kid and meets a younger woman who gives him a taste of life again.
There are some slight spoilers in this review. It’s not really the kind of movie for which this would really matter.
In this movie, Bridge’s Bad Blake is an old country musician trying to make a living going from town to town playing in bars. He’s an alcoholic and he’s stubborn. He wants so desperately to still matter as a musician that he just can’t accept that he’s past that part in his life and it’s time to move on. His agent tries desperately to get him to make money writing songs instead, but he refuses, claiming that that part of him is gone.
Throughout the movie, there are references to a guy named Tommy Sweet, a famous country star who has the career Bad Blake seems to wish he had. Bad Blake taught Tommy (Colin Ferrell) everything he knows and he seems to hold a grudge against Tommy. I thought that at some point we would find out that Tommy did something to Bad to wrong him. Like steal his music or kick him out of the band. But he didn’t. To me, it felt like he was just jealous of his fame and popularity.
At one of Bad’s gigs, he meets Jean, a small town music reporter, and they start a love affair. She has a 4 year old son. We soon find out that Bad became estranged from his own 4 year old son many years earlier. This felt like he was trying to right the wrong of abandoning his then wife and son by starting over with this new woman. She’s rather young for him, which felt weird and unbelievable to me. Why would she start dating this old alcoholic has-been when she has this kid to worry about? I get that for the story to work, she had to be young enough to have a 4 year old kid in order to draw the parallel from his own past, but I didn’t believe it. He used to be a big star, and he can still write good music, but he didn’t do it for me. My love for Jeff Bridges did not transcend my distaste for his Bad Character. Pun intended. Regardless, Jean helps Bad turn his life around, and so we like her for it.
The music in this movie was really, really good. I don’t usually like country, but I liked the music in this very much. I hope it wins for best song, and fully expect it to. It made the movie more interesting. The rest of the movie was really slow paced and dramatic. The acting however is great. I really hope he wins for best actor. He deserves it and it’s time. I love Jeff Bridges, and he made me not like his character in this movie. So good work Mr. Bridges.
My husband apparently drew the same parallel between “The Wrestler” and “Crazy Heart”, independent from me. He said that “Wrestler” is about an old dog who can’t learn new tricks, and that “Crazy Heart” is about an old dog who does. I think it’s a fair way to describe it.
Overall I’d say it was ok. It was a little slow in parts for me. I can see why it got acting nominations but not best picture. I liked the story and I liked how it ended. It was fair and realistic.
Though I don’t ‘dislike’ country music I must agree with you about the music in this movie. I, too, enjoyed it. T. Boone Pickens was one of the producers which might explain that.
Thanks for the write up!