CRAZY HEART 3.5****
Having just seen this movie and now relaxing at one of my favorite watering holes in Raleigh, three things immediately come to mind. First is the truly masterful performance by Jeff bridges as an aging , heavy boozing, chain smoking, country western singer, Bad Blake, whose career has sunk to the level of performing at local bowling alleys. How bad is that. Second is the striking similarities to last year’s “The Wrestler”…it sure does walk like and talk like a country western “Wrestler’ .There is the one time great who is hitting the bottom of his career and life although he still has very loyal fans and admirers; the young girlfriend played perfectly by Maggie Gyllenhaal; and the 28 year old son who was abandoned at age four with whom Blake wants to reconcile…sound familiar. Third is the music which is quite superb and, amazingly, is performed quite well and live by Bridges and also by Collin Ferrell, who is a younger, maybe wiser version of Blake. All of the songs are charged either by a drive to bring the house down with the joy of playing and singing , or by the tender moments such as the "Weary Kind" title track, which probably will get T-Bone Burnett his first Oscar. The music is what makes Blake's journey wonderful and bearable to watch …and it is a rough, hard journey, but the music elevates you and comforts you the same as it does Blake.

Jeff Bridges has been nominated for Oscar’s Best Actor for this role and deserves to win and probably will. He bears his soul for this role and completely immerses himself into and becomes Bad Blake…it is a stunning and splendid performance. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also wonderful in the girlfriend role..she make it look so effortless, so smooth. I must confess she is one of my favorite actresses…she has a beauty that is so subtle, so girl-next-door… then there are those long legs and such a lovely smile. AND, her voice..well it’s like being caresses by a sweet and sultry breeze.

This is not a feel good movie but it is has such a towering performance by Bridges and such a good story and wonderful music, it still stands out as a stunning movie. Life is not always kind and people are not always
kind..not even to themselves, and all this plays out before your eyes with Blake and his “getting-to-the-end’ of life’s journey” which is, for the most part, not a pretty sight. But then as the movie tagline says: “The harder the life, the sweeter the song.”

The movie has an “R’ rating mostly for the language and somewhat for some sexual content.

Clark