Where do I start with this movie? How about the fact that I fucking hate country music. HATE HATE HATE! So, I was not looking forward to this movie at all. Top that off with Jeff Bridges mumbling incoherent acceptance speech for his Oscar. I don't know maybe he was trying to act like a drunk just like Bad Blake, I don't know but oddly I don't remember many acceptance speeches, but I remember his. If I had to make a top 10 list of the worst acceptance speeches ever, he would rank second right behind Halle Berry's tear filled ridiculousness.
Crazy Heart starred Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jean Craddock, Jack Nation as Buddy Craddock, Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet, and Robert Duvall as Wayne. Sure there are a lot more people in the cast, but as far as I am concerned they are the main two characters. The movie is based on the Thomas Cobb novel of the same name.
Crazy Heart is the story of Bad Blake a washed up country star. He used to play in major venues but now he is stuck playing crappy bowling alleys and little dive bars. This is all since he made his split with his young protegee Tommy Sweet.
At one of these dive bars he meets Jean Craddock, a much younger woman with a son. She is a small town reporter and gains an interview through a bit of nepotism. The romance starts slowly, but when Bad is injured in a traffic accident she nurses him back to health.
Things are going fine with the two until Jean and her young son Buddy come to visit Bad in Houston. Bad takes Buddy out with him in downtown Houston and he loses Buddy. This is the last straw for Jean and she abruptly leaves and goes back home. Not only is this the final straw for Jean but it is the final straw for Bad and he is determined to stop drinking and with the help of his friend Wayne he is successful.
That is pretty much the movie in a nutshell. I left some stuff out here and there so as to not ruin it for those who have not seen the movie.
As mentioned earlier Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for his role in this film. He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Bad Blake. He was up against the following.
- George Clooney as Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air
- Colin Firth as George in A Single Man
- Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Invictus
- Jeremy Renner as Staff Sgt William James in The Hurt Locker
Jeff Bridges plays a drunk quite well. Not too mention that he sings pretty well too. As I understand it he sang all of the songs in this movie, which were only a few which suits me just fine. I'd be happy with country and rap being wiped off the face of the earth. I don't want to get side tracked though. Back to playing a drunk.
Two scenes stand out to me. One is early on in the film where he is playing a gig in a West Texas bowling alley. Ironically earlier in the day, the guy who owns the liquor store buys him a bottle of his preferred bourbon. During the conversation he asks if Bad will sing a particular song and dedicate it to his wife. Bad agrees and as he introduces the song and the dedication, the alcohol hits him. With the backing band now singing the tune he runs to the back door to vomit, before returning to finish out the song and the gig.
The other scene is much more bittersweet to me. It is when he loses track of Buddy and he frantically searches for him. At this point in the movie, Bad is trying to reform his ways. Like most alcoholics he mistakenly thinks he can control his drinking and to be fair he was to an extent. Unfortunately for him, he loses Buddy when he stops in a bar to get Buddy out of the heat and to get him something to drink. Despite his best intentions of trying to stop his drinking it takes a terrible turn. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Bad during this scene, because he hadn't been drinking at this point and I think his drinking was unfairly blamed for losing him. Despite this I also see the point that it could have been much worse and it would have only been a matter of time before drinking was going to hurt someone he loved.
As it turns out though this is the best thing that could have ever happened to him because it was that rock bottom that most addicts need to finally get clean. Not only does he get clean but it sparks a new period of creativity in his song writing and leads to a very touching scene in the end of the movie that I won't give away here.
The second nomination that earned Crazy Heart on our list was the one for Best Supporting Actress. Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated for her role as Jane Craddock. This was Maggie Gyllenhaal's first nomination unlike Bridges who finally won after his fifth nomination. Gyllenhaal was competing against the following actresses.
- Penelope Cruz as Carla in Nine
- Vera Farmiga as Alex Goran in Up in the Air
- Anna Kendrick as Natalie Keener in Up in the Air
- Mo'Nique as Mary in Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
That being said, I don't get the Gyllenhaal nomination. I don't think it would take much for Mo'Nique to beat her out and both nominees from Up in the Air were much better than her performance. I am not trying to say her performance was horrible, but I just don't think it was Oscar worthy. It certainly was not Meryl Streep in Kramer vs Kramer.
Maybe she got the nomination because of her admirable job trying to "fix" Bad Blake. Which is the really the only reason I can see for the relationship between the two. Both my wife and I could not figure out any reason for the attraction in the movie. It just made no sense to us. Maybe that is what clouds my judgement on her role. I won't apologize for it anymore, I don't think the nomination was deserving and I'm not going to talk myself into changing my mind.
All in all I thought it was a pretty good movie, even with the country music theme. I do have one problem with the movie though. Maybe I missed it, but the Bad Blake and Tommy Sweet story line was not explored enough in my opinion and it certainly did not seem to be completely resolved. Clearly there was some history there and in interviews Bad did not want to talk about it.
When Bad did open for Tommy it was clear that Tommy appreciated Bad and that it seemed certain things were out of his control. However, a lot of things were left to interpretation or presumption. Perhaps that was what the writer wanted, and my problem lies with the fact that I want more information and a clearer picture. It is very possible but if that is the case, it still does not change my opinion that a little more of the back story should have been shared. For that reason and that reason alone I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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