Crazy Heart is the story of a burnt out country & western singer who drinks too much, sleeps around and hasn’t written a new song in many years – and how love redeems him without making life all that much easier. Bad Blake is the burnt out C&W star and Jean Craddock [Maggie Gyllenhaal] is the reporter and single mom whose request for an interview leads to much more than either of them expect.
Essentially, Crazy Heart is Tender Mercies with an even smaller budget and a less polished script. Bad tours the country in an aging Suburban, playing with pick-up bands in hole-in-the-wall bars and bowling alleys. Even when he’s drunk, he manages to get in a couple of sets – though occasionally, he’ll miss a song in a shambling dash for the men’s room.
Jeannie is a good mom and, apparently a good reporter, who is proud of never having made the same mistake twice. Against her better judgment, she falls for the much older Bad – who treats her and her son, Buddy well when they’re together. Until things go more than a little askew – finally persuading Bad to get his $#!+ together.
Threaded through the relationship drama and Bad’s road woes, is a plot arc that involves Tommy Sweet [Colin Farrell], a bug country star who learned everything he knows from Bad. Robert Duvall [who played the equivalent of Bad in the aforementioned Tender Mercies] is on hand as Bad’s best friend, Wayne – a bar owner and fishing aficionado who’s there to help Bad once he decides to straighten up and fly right.
While Crazy Heart isn’t the movie that Tender Mercies was, it has a number of superb performances to recommend it. Duvall gives his usual standout portrayal and Gyllenhaal and Farrell are also excellent. Jack Nation is surprisingly good as Jean’s son, Buddy.
But it’s Bridges’ performance that makes the movie. His easy chemistry with rest of the cast makes film greater than the sum of its parts. It would seem that writer/director Scott Cooper figured out the best pace for the film and then let his excellent cast do what they do best.
Then there’s the music – the most important character after Bad and Jean – that particular brand of Texas-based country that fuses folk-blues and traditional country into a darkly sweet exploration of pain and loss with the occasional glimpse of undreamt of joy. Crazy Heart features some of the best Texas country around – most of it written for the film, but also classics like If I Needed You [performed by its composer, the late Townes Van Zandt – whose albums you should seek out!], Hello Trouble [Buck Owens] and Color of the blues [George Jones]. Original music comes from Ryan Bingham [another Texan you need to check out], T-Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton [his instrumental version of Bad’s hit, Somebody Else is pretty sweet].
Bridges does his own singing and gives Bad a husky, booze-drenched sound that may not be technically great, but makes every song resonate with truth. His diet with Farrell suggests that either man could be a legitimate country star if they wanted it badly enough – and that gives Crazy Heart a legitimacy of its own that cannot be ignored.
Crazy Heart may be a tale we’ve heard before, but it’s a tale worth hearing again.
Final Grade: B+