FILM REVIEW - Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges stars as a faded country singer in the film that won him his first Oscar

By James Legge

Jeff Bridges won the Oscar for Best Actor. Crazy Heart couldn’t even make a ten-film shortlist for Best Picture which included the boring and soulless District 9. That, for the reader who hasn’t the time for in-depth reviews, tells you need to know about this film.

While the seeming contradiction in the Academy’s choices is more a symptom of an unfair snub for the film than a complete failure of film-making, the disparity between Crazy Heart and the performance of its impossibly enchanting lead is unmissable. The film follows washed-up country music star Bad Blake in his struggles with romance, alcoholism, career stagnation, absent paternity and generally being a bit of a selfish tit.

Anyone who saw Darren Aranofski’s beautiful offering, The Wrestler, will now be thinking that this plot sounds awful familiar. And this brings me the one of the film’s real drawbacks. At no point in its entire duration does Crazy Heart step out the dark and sizeable shadow of The Wrestler. It portrays exactly the same themes but much more hesitantly and without the unflinching realism that marked that film out as one of last year’s cinematic gems.

I can just see it now. Studio executives sitting in a dark room watching The Wrestler, one looking at the other and saying, “This Mickey Rourke guy’s not bad, but can you think of a slightly more cuddly and charming actor for whom we could repackage this story?” Then both of them curl their lips into a knowing smile and say, in unison: “Bridges”

And Jeff Bridges is suitably marvellous. That face which insinuates a boundless experience lurking beneath and the voice like warm Nutella are employed to great effect to portray a character with a charm which has only barely managed to endure the emotional parabola of a once bright career reduced to embers.

But where the film really falls down is in the central plotline- the romance between Blake and Maggie Gyllenhall’s aspiring journalist and single mum- which defies any explanation (which, by the way, is never offered) and is failed by the latter’s performance which ranges from utter adoration to hateful disgust, but offers absolutely nothing between the two.

For those who are willing to permit technical missteps, Crazy Heart is definitely watchable. Colin Farrell pops up to give a remarkably likeable performance as a former protege of Blake’s and the country and western soundtrack, though repetitive, makes good listening. But for a film meant for consideration among Oscar contenders and with such supposed talent on screen, it takes too few risks and plays well within itself.