Crazy Heart (2009)

What happens when you play a country song backwards?  You get your car back, your wife back, and your dog back.  True as it may seem on the surface, that tired old joke fails to capture the essence of what it means to be a country music journeyman.  In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges hits the nail right on the head.

Down on his luck, Bad Blake (think Waylon Jennings) is a 57-year-old broke and broken-hearted country crooner.  Despite a brief moment of fame in his younger days, he is now relegated to traveling across the country in a beat-up truck and playing small-town bowling alleys.  Meanwhile, his protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), is a new-style country star (think Tim McGraw) who is riding a wave of fame, buffeted by his good looks and solid pedigree.

When Bad rolls into a little honkey-tonk in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he meets Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a would-be journalist with a touch of hero worship. Divorced with only her four-year-old son to show for it, she has been burned by men before and should know better than to fall for the alcoholic, chain-smoking man who’s left four wives and an abandoned son in his wake.  Blame it on the intimate motel-room interviews Bad grants her, or his forward but non-lecherous come-ons about her being pretty as a picture, or the down-home country biscuits he makes for her and her son. Whatever the cause, Jean is as smitten by him as Bad is by her and the fresh start she represents.

No sooner does the relationship begin to blossom than Bad is called to Phoenix to play a humiliating but possibly career-reinvigorating opening set for none other than Tommy Sweet, who spent years as Bad puts it “staring at my ass.”  All these chances at a new life, plus his declining health (if his emphysema doesn’t kill him, his liver or heart certainly will) force Bad to make some serious choices, some of which he gets irrevocably wrong.

If you’re thinking you’ve seen this movie before starring Robert Duvall in 1983 (Tender Mercies), you’re half-right.  Crazy Heart’s basic plotline is as familiar as a country song, and Duvall does make an appearance as Bad’s hometown buddy, Wayne. But the script, adapted by first-time writer-director Scott Cooper from the novel by Thomas Cobb, is finely crafted to set it apart from its predecessor.  While he gives the audiences a few picturesque southwest panoramas, the people and their environments don’t have a forced artificial country air about them, leaving the actors plenty of room to be authentic.

As supporting players, both Gyllenhaal and Farrell avoid the trappings of clichés. Gyllenhaal’s Jean isn’t just some dumb backwoods groupie; she knows what getting into bed with Bad means and how painful it might be to get out of it.  For his part, Farrell’s portrayal of Tommy is understated despite the fact that his character’s star is shining so much brighter.  He plays it with the sense of “there but for the grace of God” reverence necessary to not hate him.

Still, Bridges’ unique gifts as an actor and previously unseen skill as a musician are what really sets this film apart.  As Bad, he brags that he’s never missed a show in all his years on the road.  He may have to leave in the middle of song to puke his guts out in a back-alley trashcan, but he’ll always finish his set with as much dignity as a lifelong drunk can muster.

Bridges seems to understand how good times on the road have turned into bitterness and self-loathing for Bad, and he plays it with the ease of a cinematic veteran.  His Bad isn’t just a sloppy, grumpy old man.  He’s a charmer with an easygoing smile and an “aww shucks ma’am” country charisma.  It doesn’t hurt that, despite his post-middle-aged spread (Bridges just celebrated his 60th birthday), Bridges is just as handsome here in his unkempt beard and graying hair as he was in The Fabulous Baker Boys, albeit in a decidedly more Kris Kristofferson kind of way.

Both Bridges and Farrell do their own singing in the film, a nice bonus for fans of either actor.  Penned by T Bone Burnett of O Brother Where Art Thou Academy Awards, those songs are the kind of old-soul country music rarely heard on the slicked-up pop-country airwaves.  In fact, this film is worth seeing on the strength of the soundtrack alone.

Ultimately, Bad isn’t able to get back all that he’s lost.  But, with a pro like Jeff Bridges to tell his story, the character gets all that his crazy heart deserves.

See what other people thought of Crazy Heart on the Amazon page for the movie. (And if you buy a copy, we’ll make a referral fee.)