Crazy Heart, the Movie and Review

It was cathartic for me to spend a little time with the Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart at good old Baxter Avenue Theater in Louisville, Kentucky. I like Jeff Bridges especially because of the roles he played in The Fisher King and The Big Lebowski. Of course, as a kid I was a big Sea Hunt fan, a televsion series that starred his father Lloyd, and little Jeff showed up a few times there along with his brother Beau. You know, a nice family I thought, good people. So I've followed Jeff's career and have seen most of his films, and not many of them were remarkable in any way except the two I mentioned previously. Jeff just seems consistent in his acting abilities, and I like that about him. But in this latest film of his, Crazy Heart, he certainly does own the rights to the Oscar he just might win. He was remarkable in his portrayal of Bad Blake, and I have spent none too little time thinking who might have played him better. And nobody comes to mind. And that I think is because of the nuances.

From the very first down-played scene with Bad Blake driving his old pickup through the typically lonely and boring (for me anyway) West and pulling up to a bowling alley whose only description necessary here is a dive, to his getting out of the truck, pants undone and a pretty full piss-jug that needs emptying, I knew in that foretelling moment I was about to witness a spectacular performance. And consistently he made good on that opening promise. From the truck Bad makes his way toward the entrance of the bowling alley and even his walk, the shape and speed of it, the age of it, was something to behold. The acting prowess of Jeff Bridges definitively a perfect compliment to the movie's theme song The Weary Kind written by Ryan Bingham, and the singing of it by Colin Farrell who in the film plays the latest American country singing sensation Tommy Sweet.

In this fine film, Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges has acted his most honest role ever in being Bad Blake. His facial expressions, his tonal voice, his ease at letting his own physical appearance let him down, all added to the authentic experience I was having at the theater. The sweat and vomit that covered his chest and his, what looked to me as, polyester pants that stood up to the same tests this road weary singer subjected himself to. I loved the quick cutting glance he directed to the adoring older female fan between sets who offered him dinner after the show and what else it wouldn't be hard to imagine after. And that other great backwards look he gave another time as he escaped from his motel room looking back at the aged and none-too-attractive woman he had left in his bed, obviously questioning himself, and not for the first time either, over why he continuously does this sort of thing to himself and others. Subconsciously the movie was working me over and preparing me for the truth that ultimately had to be told.

When the character Wayne played by Robert Duvall picks up Blake after Blake's first stint in rehab it was also refreshing to see more of this movie truth be told. Here was Wayne, upbeat and positive, Bad exclaiming how he had this alcohol and drug thing beaten now, and Wayne telling him to hold on a second partner because maybe he did, maybe he did, but more likely there would be rough roads ahead after this initial euphoria runs its course. But then Wayne quickly adds, but maybe not, maybe not, maybe it will last, but if it doesn't he Wayne would be there for him and that would be his job to help him through the hard times sober. I liked also that the ending of the film was not the typical Hollywood gruel. I have read where the novel actually ends on a down note and the novelist knew the movie version would have to end on a higher note because that is what these people like to do out there in Hollywood. But it didn't. It didn't end up, it ended sideways, which is good because that is how life is, sideways. I personally spent years and years and thousands of dollars on my own drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and the greatest lesson I learned from all my money spent and the therapy thrown at me was to ask for one hundred percent of what I wanted. Bad Blake learned that too. And practiced it. But the big Hollywood difference, and the one difference most film treatments never suffer from, is that neither I nor Bad Blake get everything we want out of our asking for it. In fact, we get more and more lessons about who we are, and less of what we thought we always wanted. But it's always good to ask. It keeps us sober and it helps us to accept the way life is. It makes life more.

I felt the weakest link in the film was Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance. The official critics obviously disagree with me, and I do like Maggie, it just seems to me that Bad of course would have liked her, he would think she was cute and smart, and would have enjoyed doing the interview with her, but really, Bad would have probably fallen in love with a more made-up woman. You know, fake tits perhaps, a little bit more flashy, and probably closer to his own age. I just couldn't believe in the character she played or the love they supposedly had for each other. Bad could have easily attempted his failed redemption with several other ladies who would have suited his character better and would have made it possible for even a different child actor to play the part of the infant fatale. I don't think Maggie was all that important to the film, but the woman she played certainly was. So it isn't that Maggie did a poor job, she didn't. She is a gifted actor, just not cast well in this particular case.

One of the most tender scenes for me was Bad Blake and his old friend Wayne in the boat fishing. It would not surprise me if Robert Duvall as producer suggested that the director Scott Cooper let these two talented actors ad lib together in the boat and try each other on for size. See where it would go. It was a beautiful scene either way. I certainly enjoyed the ending of that same scene when Wayne busts into song almost in a fade-away, but its meaning relevant so much to the message of the film about all of us in life having the need and the responsibility to write our own song.

Copyright 2010, M Sarki, Associated Content