Jeff Bridges is phenomenal, everything else isn’t
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Scott Cooper
Notable Cast: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell
The one downside of Aronofsky’s The Wrestler is that it gave a template for any director to take a crack at an Oscar nomination. Take a downtrodden star from some less then mainstream form of popular entertainment, put him in with the unwashed masses and then put him on a path to redemption. Throw in some sort of medical problem and you have a shot for an actor to try and win an Oscar. So one can see why Jeff Bridges would latch on to a project like Crazy Heart; it’s a meaty role that for a particular actor could mean awards glory.
Bad Blake (Bridges) is a down on his luck country singer who was once famous. Going from being the toast of Nashville to playing bars in the Southwest, Blake is scrounging by because he had a handful of hits. Drowning in alcohol, Blake stumbles through life in his Silverado as his bid for one last comeback slips further away from him. It hurts even more for him as his protégé Tommy (Colin Farrell) is a top selling country artist and the best he can do is have people offer him money to write songs for him. Entering his life is a woman (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who becomes more then a one night stand, and his fortunes begin to change. But will his problem with the bottle do him in, or is there something inside him looking for redemption? The question really ought to be “Why should we care?”
Don’t blame that on its star, Bridges. Usually up for the title of “Best Actor not to win an Oscar,” Bridges is a dependable supporting actor but usually not one given the task of carrying a movie of this nature. Bridges has long been removed from the days of being a regular leading man, but has carved out a career as being a first rate character actor, but some roles are prime for someone of his unique talents. Bad Blake is one of those characters, a drunken has-been content to play in the small time because of the hope of a return to the big time. The role is shallow but Bridges is talented enough to give it a depth the film doesn’t provide him. This is a virtuoso performance from Bridges, developing Blake from a one note character who turns it around into a sympathetic character we want to see succeed.
The rest of the film just tends to ape The Wrestler in nearly every aspect, substituting in Gyllenhaal as a reporter to spur Bad Blake’s shot at redemption, but there’s nothing special as to why we ought to care about the situation. Bad Blake isn’t sympathetic because of anything he does, or because he’s a former star, but because Bridges is in the midst of the performance of a lifetime. Scott Cooper, who adapted the film from a novel as well as directs the film, doesn’t give add anything to it as both a writer and director. There’s enough to it that the film is watchable, and he’s strong enough of a director to let Bridges carry the brunt of the heavy lifting the film needs.
It certainly doesn’t come from the rest of the cast. Gyllenhaal and Farrell are both capable of much more then they’re given; Gyllenhaal is given another in what seems like a series of thankless roles as the token love interest, not given enough to it to make it worthwhile. Farrell has what amounts to an extended cameo. For as big of names as they are, neither is given a part big enough that would go with their name recognition and status. It’s kind of a shame and a waste of talent, but for a film that was originally supposed to go directly to DVD it’s not surprising.
Crazy Heart is hitting theatres not because it’s a tremendous film, but it has the performance that should win Best Actor at the next Academy Awards. That makes it worth seeing in and of itself.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
