Jeff Bridges' Last Waltz

Crazy Heart

***1/2 out of ****

Directed by: Scott Cooper

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell

Running Time: 112 minutes

Watching Crazy Heart, an Oscar-nominated drama about a washed-up country crooner, is like taking in a prolonged acoustic solo from a guitar god. It drifts along casually and comfortably, but try your best to turn away from the mesmerizing performer at its center.

It may be low-key (don’t expect the sharp tongue of Up in the Air or the visual pizzazz of Avatar) but it’s also sweet, smooth and soulful. It’s one of the finest films of the year, adapted from a novel by Thomas Cobb.

Jeff Bridges turns in a pitch-perfect performance as Bad Blake, an alcoholic singer/songwriter. In one of the signature songs from the film, the lyrics go, “I used to be somebody / But now I’m somebody else.”

Blake used to be a country music star. Now he lives out of his rusted Chevy pick-up, plays in local hangouts and shoddy bowling alleys (The Dude doesn’t abide), and retreats to his whiskey whenever his manager (James Keene) isn’t trying to summon him into recording new material.

He's also piss-poor and lonely, with four wives behind him. A young singer he once mentored, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), has hit the big-time, and it’s getting under Blake's skin.

But one afternoon in Santa Fe, he meets Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a music journalist and single mom. Blake sits down with her for an interview. She is smitten with his unabashed charm, even as she watches his throaty stanzas of loss and rejection burden him onstage.

Jean knows exactly the type of man he is: struggling but quietly resilient, tired but still keen and thoughtful – especially when he writes her a lovely ballad called “The Weary Kind” (deservedly up for Best Song at the Oscars).

The audience also knows who Blake is – we’ve seen this character archetype plenty of times before.

But there’s something about Bad that’s still flickering, something agile and intense buried beneath his flabby stomach and unkempt beard. This is why Jean falls for him, and also why we’re rooting for him too.

And it works magnificently due to the impassioned work of Jeff Bridges, one of our most adored actors. He’s not just The Dude and variations thereof, ladies and gentlemen, but a versatile, commanding actor. As Blake, he’s never been better.

Bridges is immensely charismatic and has strong (if raspy) pipes, but the performance works best because of subtle nuances. Watching Bridges sip scotch or whack around a microphone stand is a finer demonstration of character acting than what we usually find from most high-strung Hollywood productions.

Bridges is a tremendous frontman, but he’s joined by an excellent band of actors. Gyllenhaal (also deservedly Oscar-nominated) is deeply touching as the smart, if unstable Jean. Robert Duvall (who played a similar protagonist in the much-acclaimed Tender Mercies, from 1983) even shows up for some fine supporting work as a caring old friend named Wayne.

Crazy Heart is the first feature from Scott Cooper, and it is an assured debut. Like his protagonist, Cooper is modest but confident. He gets major points for letting the camera soak into the bleary Southwestern sun and amplifying the soundtrack on Blake’s hits within certain scenes to deepen our relationship with the characters.

The soundtrack, featuring original music from T Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham and the late Steven Bruton, is soft but sublime. Expect “The Weary Kind” to score the same kind of around-the-campfire status that worked for songs from Once, a winsome indie musical from 2007.

Some may be put off by the film’s derivative nature. Others may find the pacing to be of “the weary kind.”

But this film is primarily an acting showcase, and it's an exceptional one at that. This is Jeff Bridges unplugged, intensely soulful, and engrossing. It may be the performance of the year – one anyone would be crazy to miss.