Cast: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell

Director: Scott Cooper

Screenplay: Scott Cooper

Running-time: 1 hr 52 mins

Genre: Drama



CRITIQUE:


Crazy Heart, an artlessly-titled, mediocre film about a washed-up western country singer, frustratingly adheres to an all-pervading formula common to almost all musical biopics. This treads Walk the Line and Ray territory (albeit less powerful),and touches the same themes with Leaving Las Vegas (but less depressing). A grizzly, dishevelled, greying country singer way past his stardom drowns his sorrows with whiskey, faces personal demons, romantic rough-patch, career meltdown, and embarks on a road to redemption – honestly, we’ve been this road before, many times. This could also be The Wrestler’s second-cousin, although a less compelling and inferior one. The comparison isn’t without justification: here in Crazy Heart, we have a tortured has-been trying to get the grips with his past, seeking forgiveness from his once-neglected offspring, finds a glimmer of romantic hope with a woman almost half his age – and all of this happens whilst guzzling down lethal amounts of alcohol (and to other Hollywood screenplay formula, meddling with drugs). This is exactly the kind of film that its synopsis alone should be quite enough to tell us what’s it all about and where it’s going, even with our eyes closed throughout its running-time.


Gripes about its over-familiarity aside, we have to consider, then, Jeff Bridges’ emotionally satisfying, if not histrionically remarkable, presence and performance. His career roles may have been much ignored by the award-giving bodies, he’s definitely and easily the best thing in Crazy Heart, and there’s no doubt about the tremendous acclaim being built on his portrayal of the self-pitying Bad Blake. And there’s no questioning that he manages to give some appreciable weight to this otherwise banal role, overshadowing even good acts from Maggie Gyllenhaal as the love-object journo (understated and underrated) and Colin Farrell as country-music upstart Tommy (spot-on portrayal, but in a contrived role) – but his delivery of Bad Blake seems and feels more like a lived-in Bridges performance rather than a real stretch of acting muscle. As effortless as it may be, this is because Bridges can play this sort of role even in casual-mode, even in his sleep, even probably in his boozed, drunken stupor. If Oscars were to award him the Best Actor trophy this year, it’s out of respect, not based on the versatility of performance.


VERDICT:

Jeff Bridges superbly etches the failures, pain and inner crisis of the washed-up, greying country singer Bad Blake – a performance so convincingly drawn that it makes one forget the entire film, which is actually a dramatically inert, drearily familiar tale of midlife crisis and self-redemption. With Bridges aside, Crazy Heart is lethargic, derivative and as prosaic as watching the back of your hand.



RATING: B-