FILM REVIEW - Crazy Heart

another review, another viewpoint because, well, why not

By David Newman

The Early hours of Monday morning saw the announcement of the winners of the 82^nd Academy Awards.  It was a night of new beginnings with Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win the Best Director award since the Oscars began in 1929.  A great achievement no doubt, something to be lauded and shouted from the mountain tops.  However, under all the hullabaloo there was one problem; what had been forgotten.  Whilst Bigelow was taking one small step for womankind; a quieter piece of history was being written; Jeff “The Dude” Bridges also won his first Oscar. Bridges, a Hollywood behemoth and as big a liberal institution as Google, has  long been the Academy’s bridesmaid, nominated four times but never getting a little golden groom of his own.  With Crazy Heart, however, the curse has been broken and in spectacular style

Bridges embodies his role as Bad Blake, a down on his luck country star with more than a passing resemblance to Kris Kristofferson.  Imagine a conference league Johnny Cash, drowning his sorrows in cheap whiskey and middle-aged groupies.  We meet Bad in the middle of a six show tour around his native state of Texas, gigging at bowling allies and dive bars.  It is at one of these that he agrees to an interview with a young journalist, Maggie Gyllenhaal, herself struggling with a new job and young son.  These two bruised individuals form an unlikely union and for a while it looks like Bad is on the road to redemption.

Yet like all great

Crazy Heart may seem like a fictional Walk the Line but is closer in tone and theme to Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Indeed the films are so similar that Aranofsky might think he’s inclined to some royalties. Both dealing with old men who have paid the price of fame and been left with nothing to show for it but the loneliness after it’s gone. Yes, the similarities are undoubtedly legion but the differences are also stark.  In Crazy Heart, Scott Cooper, writer/director and producer, has created a modern Western with Blake as his No Name, oozing smoke and dripping whiskey. 

This is a deeply reflective movie on the nature of life and legacy, while Bridges’ central performance and a strong supporting cast held my attention throughout.  At its core, the film also sounds a warning note about the dangers of alcohol and is a reminder that at a time when newer drugs are grabbing the headlines, the devil you know is not always better.