Crazy Heart: movie review
鈥�Crazy Heart鈥� is about a boozy, washed-up country-and-western star, and if you think you鈥檝e seen it all before, you haven鈥檛. That鈥檚 because Jeff Bridges, a great actor, plays the singer.
Bridges鈥檚 Bad Blake still has a loyal following but mostly plays bowling alleys and rundown honky-tonks. He prides himself on never missing a show but, once onstage, his participation is iffy. In one garishly funny sequence, he breaks off mid-number, rushes into a back alley to throw up, and then rejoins the band as if nothing was wrong. In his own strung-out way, Blake has aplomb. Somewhere deep inside this bushy-bearded guy with a bum leg and a big belly is the young star he once was.
The best thing to happen to Blake is Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a starry-eyed feature writer for a Sante Fe newspaper who interviews him and winds up in his bed. Groupies are nothing new for Blake, but Jean, who is divorced with a little boy, is different. She鈥檚 smart, tough-minded, and has class. When she first walks into his dingy motel room, he remarks that she 鈥渕akes the room look bad,鈥� and he鈥檚 not trying to butter her up. He鈥檚 just being honest.
It is because of Jean that Blake, whose health is declining, decides to reform. Because of the responsibilities she imposes, Jean is also why he stumbles. The romance between these two doesn鈥檛 quite convince, perhaps because, as Gyllenhaal plays her, Jean seems too level-headed, too unmasochistic, to fall for Blake. But this criticism may be off the mark. 鈥淐razy Heart,鈥� familiar as it seems, doesn鈥檛 play out the way you expect it to. What Gyllenhaal, and debuting writer-director Scott Cooper, are saying is: You can be nobody鈥檚 fool and still be a fool for love.
This is certainly true for Blake, who seems to lose about 30 years whenever he鈥檚 in Jean鈥檚 company. His foolishness is restorative. Cynical as he is, he still has high hopes. His relationship with Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), a former sidekick-turned-star, is fraught, but when Tommy, who genuinely likes Blake, asks him to write some new songs for him, Blake delivers. 鈥淚 used to be somebody but now I鈥檓 somebody else,鈥� Blake sings early on. 鈥淐razy Heart鈥� is about how he joins himself together again.
Bridges makes all this corn-pone sorrow worth watching. Not once does he condescend to his character. Blake is no rube, no cracker. Bridges has been one of America鈥檚 best actors ever since he started out in his early 20s in films like 鈥淭he Last American Hero鈥� and 鈥�The Last Picture Show.鈥� He鈥檚 given amazing performances in everything from 鈥淐utter鈥檚 Way鈥� and 鈥�The Iceman Cometh鈥� to 鈥淲ild Bill鈥� and 鈥�The Fabulous Baker Boys.鈥� But because he鈥檚 rarely been in blockbusters he鈥檚 never gotten the popular recognition he deserves.
鈥淐razy Heart鈥� probably won鈥檛 change that. Adapted from a novel by Thomas Hood, it鈥檚 scaled small and it鈥檚 not startling enough to make us forget its antecedents, especially 鈥淭ender Mercies.鈥� (The star of that film, Robert Duvall, is a producer of 鈥淐razy Hearts,鈥� as is Bridges, and has a small role in it.) It would be a mistake, though, to assume that Bridges is like anybody else you鈥檝e ever seen. (He, like Farrell, even does his own singing, and he鈥檚 good.) Most of these country-and-western roles are open invitations to chomp scenery, but Bridges, who looks here like Kris Kristofferson from some angles, is so supremely naturalistic that you never catch him acting. This is, of course, the most difficult form of acting.
Bridges draws us deeply inside Blake鈥檚 moment-to-moment heartbreaks. He makes us root for him as we would root for a dear friend. Ultimately, his triumphs become our own. Grade: A- (Rated R for language and brief sexuality.)
