MOVIE REVIEW: Crazy Heart 21/2 stars out of 5
Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell; directed by Scott Cooper
Although it features a captivating performance by Jeff Bridges, much deserving of his unanimous support through awards season, Crazy Heart is a dull chore to stomach.
The film tells the simple final act story of faded country star Bad Blake's life. Once a star, and married four or five times, Bad now earns a modest living performing in small-town bars and bowling alleys. He has let himself go and drifted into alcoholism, but he still gets to every cheesy gig and beds some less-than-attractive fan after the show, even if he has to puke his way through each.
His life begins to change when Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) enters the picture as a small-town journalist with a four-year-old son assigned to interview the former celebrity. After a few shallow chats, where Bad Blake puts on the skeezey drunken moves, Jean begins to fall for the man behind the music, despite the fact that he's twice her age, four times her weight and forgets to do up his fly when he actually has the courtesy to put on his pants.
Maggie Gyllenhaal received a supporting actress pity nomination for having to play the character that is willing to make love to this fat, boozing old-timer. This relationship rubbed me the wrong way, not just because every time they kiss it reminded me of Sigourney Weaver locking lips with Gene Hackman's hacking tobacco tycoon in Heartbreakers (but minus the irony), but also because the relationship is just too implausible. Jeff Bridges does give a dominating performance, but the film around him is very much the CMT-produced direct-to-video snore it was originally geared to be.
Mike Sage is a documentary filmmaker, editor and film critic. He can be reached at mikewsage@gmail.com.
