Crazy Heart (Movie Review)

Movie Review
Crazy Heart
2009
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Directed by: Scott Cooper

On its own, Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart is a good movie. However, when watching it, it’s easy to feel a sense of déjà vu. It feels too similar to last year’s The Wrestler to feel unique. All you have to do is replace professional wrestling with country music and you’ve pretty much got the basics of Crazy Heart. Even though it feels like it lacks originality, it still makes for an interesting story. The story is predictable which, at times, are both a good thing and a bad thing.

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is an over-the-hill country singer that hasn’t produced anything of mention for many years. His love for alcohol would be an understatement as he usually starts drinking even before he wakes up. His life is now the one of a drifter as he plays his hits in small town bars for meagre payouts. His life starts to take a turn for the better when his agent tells him that his former protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) would like Blake to write a couple of songs for him. Despite his feelings about writing for someone he had helped start-up his career, Blake accepts because he figures it will pay him a substantial amount and it could be his ticket back to the top.

Blake also gets close to a reporter named Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal). She is many years younger than him. Despite the age difference, she falls for him. The two get very close. Blake also befriends her son Buddy (Jack Nation) and the three of them start to act like a family. However, things go horribly wrong when Blake loses Buddy at a shopping centre after Blake decides to slip into a bar. Jean is furious with Blake for what he’s done and feels angry at herself for allowing a drunk into her life considering that her ex-husband and Buddy’s father wasn’t exactly the most sober guy around. Blake tries to reform himself and win back Jean’s love as well as make his way back to the top of the country music world.

I’m not a fan for knocking a film because it’s too similar to another movie. I’ve always believed that films should be looked at as their own isolated production. However, when I first saw clips of Crazy Heart, I immediately thought of The Wrestler. I was hoping that when watching the film in its entirety that these feelings would disappear. Unfortunately they were reinforced. The problem is the story is too similar. You have a down and out guy who has one last chance at making it big. If you take out wrestling and replace it with country music and the steroids with alcohol, it is an almost identical movie. Bad Blake is the long-lost cousin of Randy the Ram. It doesn’t make the film bad though. It just feels a bit bland considering that it doesn’t seem like an original movie.

That being said, the performances were pretty good. Jeff Bridges was excellent playing the tortured soul of Bad Blake. You feel empathy for the character despite the fact that he’s a jackass, a drunk, and a poor representative of human society. It takes something special for someone to take such a lousy character and make the audience root for him. Bridges deserves acclaim for that. The supporting performances were good although Maggie Gyllenhaal was a bit overrated in her role here. She didn’t add much to the character and could have easily been replaced by a no-name talent. Same goes for Robert Duvall who seems to keep playing the same type of character in all his most recent movies no matter what the setting or situation call for. It could be a little bit that Bridges is so good that he creates a shadow that his co-workers can’t avoid. However, it still feels like the supporting cast could have been better.

Another issue with the film is that it is a bit predictable. The second a storyline arc within the movie is created, you most likely can guess with surprising accuracy where it is going to end up. There is no suspense whatsoever, which is sort of deflating. Some movies can get away with it because they have a large amount of charm or they’re a formulaic action film where it doesn’t matter what the story is as long as the action is well done. Crazy Heart is neither of these movies because Bad Blake, although he becomes an underdog you want to cheer for, doesn’t allow for the film to be all that charming. Similarly, Blake’s doesn’t use his guitar to save the free world with his kung-fu grip. When you have scenes like the one with Blake and Buddy in the bar that are totally predictable from start to finish, it can make the movie very dull. Still though, you feel for Blake and you want to succeed. It feels good to see him do well; although it would have been better if it was unexpected.

Despite these hang-ups, Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart is a good movie. It could have been better if it had more of an original story or if the story had at least one twist. However, the narrative is told well and it is interesting to watch Bad Blake’s journey. It could have been better but it could have been worse too.

☆☆☆