Film Review: Crazy Heart

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 18:03

CRAZY HEART (15) *** DIRECTED BY: SCOTT COOPER STARRING: JEFF BRIDGES, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, COLIN FARRELL

ANYBODY paying the slightest attention to the awards buzz surrounding this tale of a washed-up country singer trying to get his life in order would be forgiven for thinking star Jeff Bridges has been languishing in some kind of critical wilderness for much of his career. Frequently described as "underrated" – especially in relation to this film – he is actually one of the most "rated" actors of his generation, regularly recognised as the best thing in a movie, even when the movie he's in is no good.

Crazy Heart doesn't quite fall into the latter category, but it's not much of a film either. Flat, clichd and predictable in a way that The Wrestler – its most obvious antecedent – always managed to avoid (or at least transcend), the best that can be said about writer-director Scott Cooper's lifeless film-making style is that he gets out of the way of his actors. With his gone-to-seed handsomeness, jowly smile and laconic charm, Bridges is casually brilliant as the alcoholic Bad Blake, a one-time recording giant reduced to touring bowling alleys, throwing up in back alleys and drinking to forget he's been irresponsible with his talent.

The stratospheric rise of Bad's one-time prodigy, Tommy Sweet (an uncredited Colin Farrell), acts as a constant reminder that he's blown his career, and Bridges conveys this by imbuing him with a mixture of false nonchalance and simmering irritation whenever anyone gets too close to the truths he's not willing to face. Farrell – a genuinely underrated actor trapped in the body of an over-hyped movie star – complements Bridges beautifully here, playing Tommy not as an arrogant, ungrateful braggart, but as a reverential fan oblivious to the way his own hard-won success reflects on and undermines his mentor. Unfortunately the film's main focus is the relationship that evolves between Bad and the pretty young journalist played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who comes to interview him one day. Juggling life as a single mother with a career as an aspiring writer, her arrival stretches credulity to breaking point, with the film insisting on exploring the romantic connection that forms between them. That's hardly Gyllenhaal's fault, but turning the film into such ham-fisted male redemption fantasy betrays any complexity the actors bring to their roles.