Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges jumps into the role head first

Last Sunday evening, in the famous Kodak Theatre in LA, 60 year-old Jeff Bridges was the toast of Hollywood as he picked the award for Best Actor In A Leading Role for his performances as Bad Blake in this polished tale of a washed-up country singer. Having previously been nominated on four occasions (most recently for The Contender in 2001), you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would begrudge The Big Lebowski star for gaining this prestigious award.

While Colin Firth’s performance in A Single Man was something of a revelation, Bridges was fully deserving of his win as he brings this film, which has a rather formulaic plot if truth be told, onto another level with his performance.

Having been a music star in his earlier days, we now see Blake living out of motels as he plays bars and bowling alleys across America, while at the same time seeing his young protégé Tommy Sweet (Farrell) becoming every inch the star that he once was.

We see Blake clearly down in the dumps, struggling to make a steady living out of playing his music, and with a serious drinking problem to boot. He is also distanced from his adult son, whom he hasn’t seen since he was very young.

However, he does find redemption in the form of a local writer called Jean Craddock (Gyllenhaal) and her young son, whom he grows a strong affection towards. Such is the relationship that develops between Craddock and her son that he begins to see them as being a major part of his future.

As the film goes on, his circumstances begin to improve, but his past demons come back to haunt him and cause him to take action that he had previously done his level best to ignore.

In the role of Bad Blake, Bridges jumps into the role head first, and isn’t afraid to take risks in his portrayal of a 50-something past his prime musician. He gained a considerable amount of weight for the role of Blake, and there are a couple of scenes where he does bare his waistline on camera, which other actors of his ilk would be reluctant to do.

A number of people have pointed this out, along with a number of other moments, as an example of how his performance could be described as Oscar-bait. While there are a number of aspects to his performance which do have similarities to recent Oscar-winning roles, it would be extremely unjust to suggest that his portrayal of Blake was solely geared towards securing his win last Sunday, because this is simply not the case. If Bridges (or indeed the screenwriters) had set out with this aim in mind, then his character could have been given a big speech in the film’s climax, or could have had a scene where he has an emotional breakdown, but this doesn’t happen and the film is the better for it.

Crazy Heart is similar to last year’s The Wrestler in terms of theme, and in the same way that Marisa Tomei’s character helped to transform Mickey Rourke’s title character in that Darron Aronofsky feature, Maggie Gyllenhaal does the same with her performance in this film.

Though her character is markedly different to Marisa Tomei in the aforementioned The Wrestler (she played a stripper in that film), Gyllenhaal is excellent and was fully deserving of her nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Given that she shares the screen with Bridges more than any other actor in the film, the role is quite a demanding one for Gyllenhaal, and she once again shows why she is one of the most under-rated actresses working today.

Other than that, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell also appear in brief, but pivotal roles, and add considerably to the overall feel of the film. Aside from the performances, the music is quite powerful throughout, with fine vocals coming from Bridges and Farrell, with legendary music guru T Bone Burnett providing the deep and meaningful words.

The film does have its flaws, as mentioned earlier the plot has been seen before, and there is a feel that the film does meander at times before returning to the core of the story in the final act.

Nonetheless, there is plenty to recommend in the film, none more so than the performance of Bridges, who has whet the appetite for his upcoming roles in both Tron Legacy and the Coen Brothers’ True Grit remake, where he will play the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn.

Running Time: 112 mins
Company: Butcher’s Run Films
Certificate: 15
Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell.
Director:  Scott Cooper
Homepage: www.foxsearchlight.com/crazyheart