Easy stuff first: even if Jeff Bridges didn't have the resume that makes his pending Oscar at least in part a lifetime achievement award his performance as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart would still be good enough to merit a statue. He's that good; it's there in the details, the way the fading country legend Bad lurches out of a club drunkenly to vomit or the way he casually gestures to a sideman to take a guitar solo. Many rapturous descriptions of Bridges's acting use the word "disappear" to describe the unfussy way he slips into a role. Whether that's the right term is a matter of acting semantics, but if there was a any doubt on the subject then I'd say Crazy Heart proves Bridges as capable of projecting more charisma with less sense of effort than any film actor I've ever seen.
If only the movie hanging around Bridges were as strong as his performance. Writer/director Scott Cooper gives Bad a good deal to think about; there's his drinking problem, his protege and possible benefactor Tommy (Colin Farrell), and his new relationship with single mom Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Alcohol is the central issue in Bad's life. It's the thing that occasionally keeps him from completing a show coherently and it's what preys on his mind during his time babysitting Jean's young son Buddy (Jack Nation). Not to belabor a point but Bridges is expert at portraying both the ravages of drinking and the need for alcohol that has been the fuel to some of Bad's best work. When a drink-fueled crisis jeopardizes Bad's relationship with Jean things spill over and Bad enters rehab. One of the most common complaints I've read about Crazy Heart is that Bad's time in rehab feels rushed and inauthentic; when a pal (Robert Duvall) comes to pick Bad up it's as if he has finished in 45 minutes. I can't deny that the rehab stuff feels like filler, at one point Bridges is wandering through a garden and I thought I was watching a "Deep Thoughts" from Saturday Night Live. Yet I would also add that I think the choice to enter rehab is a good deal more important to Bad's story than the actual process of getting well, and that I don't know what Crazy Heart could have added to the countless depictions of detox and AA meetings we've seen in other films and shows.Better to have skipped the rehab center scenes altogether and used a "30 Days Later" title card.
The issue that almost sinks Crazy Heart isn't Bad's recovery but the fact that Jean is inexplicably coming on to Bad from the moment she enters his hotel room to interview him. If you can't figure out why an attractive young professional with a kid would be attracted to a older man whose face looks like an abstract painting then you're not alone, and I don't think even the talents of Bridges and Gyllenhaal (whose no-nonsense sweetness is enormously attractive) quite made me believe this relationship. Jean and Buddy are too obviously on hand as engines for Bad's redemption, and when the moment comes it works but we can see it from much too far away.
Nevertheless there's a raucous Americanness to Crazy Heart that I love, from Duvall's seen-it-all bartender to the culture of bowling alleys that put on country music shows on Saturday nights. (Bad's downscale Texas home feels exactly right) Bad Blake feels like a capstone role for Bridges but perhaps the best thing about Crazy Heart is that it might not be. As a newly certified film legend Bridges will have his pick of good roles for awhile and we'll all be better off for the results.
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