CRAZY HEART
5 out of 5 stars

“son, i’ve played sick, drunk, divorced, and on the run. bad blake hasn’t missed a goddamn show in his whole fucking life.”
– otis “bad” blake

WOW! jeff bridges won best oscar in 2009 due to this role as bad blake, and he sure as hell EARNS it in this! this movie puts that gweneth paltrow as drunk-ass country singer movie TO SHAME. fox searchlight, you’ve done it again… ;)

so… who is this bad blake? the movie starts out with a hobo-looking dude (jeff bridges) with a kicker hat and old-school aviators drive up to a bowling alley in his ’78 suburban named old bessie. he’s pissed off at someone named jack, and basically goes straight to the bar… (total alchy!) he orders up a double of mcclure’s whiskey (his fave), and thinks he can just put it on his tab. unfortunately, his agent jack knows what kind of spending habits bad has, and brokered a deal with the venues to have bad pay for his own liquor. bad can’t believe that his life has come down to playing for small audiences at bowling alleys and saloons, but enter jean craddock (maggie gyllenhaal), a reporter from a local sante fe newspaper, doing a piece on bad blake. while in sante fe, jean and bad fall in love, but bad is still reeling from the issues of his mentee, tommy sweet (colin farrell transformed into a country music star!), outshining him… but it’s not just jean he’s fallen in love with… jean has a little four-year-old boy named buddy, who inspires bad blake to “wake up” and possibly write one of his best songs yet… ;)

i originally perceived this movie to be a depressing movie about a dying country star with crazy issues (both family and external), but there was a really good storyline to this one… it’s not so much about bad blake’s issues per se, but what he does to overcome them and how he turns his life around after a chance meeting with a woman and her son. jeff bridges proves yet again that HE CAN ACT WELL, and he’s got it down to every mannerism. both bridges and farrell sing, and actually quite well! but it’s really the soundtrack that brings this movie altogether. they say that country music is supposed to be about stories and telling one’s life story… partnah, add this to your queue b/c you don’t want to miss out on this story. ;)