Jeff Bridges is awesome. He's been awesome since his debut in 1971's The Last Picture Show. He was awesome in the 80's (Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys), 90's (The Fisher King, The Big Lebowski) and 00's (The Contender, Seabiscuit). Even with all the great things he has done Bridges has never been as awesome as he is in Crazy Heart - except for The Dude but that's a given.
Bridges plays Otis "Bad" Blake an alcoholic, former country star who refuses to write new material and is now reduced to playing small gigs in local dive bars and bowling alley's. He has no money, no family and no real career. During a tour he meets Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaall), a small town reporter and divorced mother and they start up a relationship. As their relationship grows Bad shows signs of creative spark but can he overcome his demons and attain redemption both in his personal life and with his music?
Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance here and it was very well deserved. He embodies a broken down alcoholic in ever movement and every breath. This is one of those roles that after seeing the movie there is no way to ever picture another actor as Bad Blake. Gyllenhaal is very good as well but her part is a bit underwritten ( it's never really clear why she would fall in love with Bad in the first place). The rest of the supporting performances (Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall) are all very good as well and make the most of their limited screen time.
Obviously in a story about a country music singer, country music is going to play a huge role in the film so I'm going to preface by saying I hate contemporary mainstream country music with a passion. It's fake, manufactured and has no soul. Luckily Bad Blake's music - and the rest of the music in the film - is in line with 1970's "outlaw" country music and is excellent. Bridges (and Colin Farrell, who knew?) can really sing and the original songs (written by a bunch of artists and supervised by T-Bone Burnett) are all very enjoyable. The music scenes are the best aspect of Crazy Heart and a great reminder that not all country music sucks.
Unfortunately the love story never really clicks. As I mentioned before the reasons that Jean falls in love with Bad are never really clear and it just doesn't always ring true. Crazy Heart also doesn't exactly break new ground in it's story of redemption and love. Everything is a bit familiar and it always feels like we've seen this story before. These issues don't prevent the movie from working but they do hold it back from being a classic.
Much like the movie itself, the blu-ray is solid but unspectacular. The video transfer is crisp, with fine colorization and excellent detail. Crazy Heart just isn't the type of movie that is going to provide a big visual "wow" factor but it looks good and suits the story perfectly. The audio is strong as well. The movie is almost entirely dialogue driven and that aspect is always clear and easily understandable. There isn't much to speak of as far as low end support and surrounds are basically used only for ambiance but anything different would seem very forced. The track does open up significantly during the concert scenes and the music sounds fantastic. Guitars are crisp, drums are tight and the vocals are strong.
Crazy Heart is a very good movie but it's story is nothing groundbreaking. Bridges deserved the Best Actor Oscar he won as his performance is fantastic. I also enjoyed the soundtrack much more than what passes for country music these days. Bridges and the music make the film worth watching but I'm not sure if the overall film will warrant multiple viewings.
Ratings:
Movie: 4/5
Blu-ray: 4/5
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