Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try...There are films that make you weep at the end. But then there are those that make your eyes well up with tears the entire time you watch. The tears just stay there in your eyes, constantly. Enough to touch your heart, but not so much to ruthlessly tug at your heartstrings causing them to stream down your face**. Crazy Heart is just one of those poignant, beautiful films I cannot help but recommend to fans of music movies in the vein of Almost Famous and Once and movies about male mid-life crises in the vein of Sideways and American Beauty, if a bit more heavy, dark, hopeless and gritty. Thematically, it isn't entirely groundbreaking as it deals with the likes of love, loneliness, loyalty, despair, regret, disillusionment, and friendship, but it's a must for people who love movies about music, musicians, music journalism, fandom, the process of song-writing, the healing power of song, and the sparks of creative inspiration.
My life-long awe of Jeff Bridges in a film that could lazily be classified as The Big Lebowski meets The Wrestler may have caused me to walk into the theatre predisposed to falling in love with it, but the story of Bad Blake, a washed-up, alcoholic country singer on the verge (of what... a breakdown? The end? A comeback? A deadline? Redemption? Death? I'll let you figure that one out yourself) is so engaging that it matters not whether you like country music (albeit the really, really good kind) at all. I was actually pleasantly surprised just how amazing the songs were and I'm sure T-Bone Burnett and his cronies deserve most, if not all, of the credit. Of course, the killer soundtrack cannot compete with JB's authentic performance which hardly qualifies as acting anyway as clearly the man doesn't just play the role... he transcends it. The Dude's got my vote for one of the best alcoholic actors of all time. He totally deserves the Best Actor Oscar nomination... fuck it, just give him the award already. I doubt the other Best Actor nominees would have the audacity to contest it.
Favorite line in the movie:
"I wanna talk about how bad you make this room look." Trust me, in the context of the scene it was a simple, awesome segue/change of topic, had old world charm and a certain je ne sais quoi sexiness to it.
Favorite lyric:
"I used to be somebody, now I'm somebody else."
Favorite songs from the movie:
"The Weary Kind" (theme from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham), and "Fallin' & Flyin'" (sung by Jeff Bridges & Colin Farrell in the movie... who knew?)
**Normally, I would advise you to take this with a grain of salt as I do have a slight tendency to tear up during movies, The Lion King being no exception; however, this movie definitely has moments that lean toward the uber-sad.
