DVD Reviews

Crazy Heart – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 21, 2010, 15:45 GMT

Four-time Academy Award(R) nominee Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film "Crazy Heart" from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who\'s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can\'t help but reach for salvation with the help ...more

Jeff Bridge plays a burnt out country star who has fallen on hard times. Bridge’s times are golden though as the role won him an Oscar.

The film is a tale of hard times and redemption worthy of a country song and the one for the film also won an Oscar.

“Bad” Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a once famous country star whose star is on the wane. He’s reduced to playing bowling alleys and anyplace that will take the grizzled, whiskey soaked troubadour in his beat up ’78 Suburban (which he usually drives with his pants unbuckled and unzipped to accommodate his expanding waistline).

Times were not always so hard for Bad and he even mentored current country superstar Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell). During a show at a bar in Santa Fe, Bad gets a request from his piano player Wesley (Rick Dial). Wesley’s niece Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a budding reporter at a local paper and wants to interview the graying guitar picker.

Jean is divorced with a four-year-old son, Buddy (Jack Nation). She gets her interview with Bad and the two begin a friendship and then become lovers. Things start to look up for Bad as Tommy asks him to open one of his concerts. Bad sheepishly asks that Tommy record an album with him, but Tommy wants Bad to start writing songs again.

Bad’s relationship with Jean begins to flourish and he even takes a liking to Buddy. However, Bad’s bad ways will get the better of him and he’ll find his lowest point at the bottom of a whiskey bottle and he, with the help of his buddy Wayne (Robert Duvall), will need to face his demons.

Director Scott Cooper wanted to make a biopic about Merle Haggard but found the rights difficult to obtain. He instead turned to a novel by Thomas Cobb that covered similar ground. “Bad” Blake is a mixture of Haggard, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson and I’d also add Johnny Cash into the mix.

I supposed I’ve got Cash on the brain after watching a documentary called Johnny Cash’s America but I could pick out some similarities in Cash’s career and the story of Blake. Both were on the top of their games, suffered a career downturn as well as addictions, and in their twilight years pulled their career out of the dumper.

Maybe it’s just that Blake’s life shows so many similarities to many a classic country song (George Jones’ He Stopped Loving her Today just popped into my noggin and I could see Blake in the main role and Jean in part of the lost love). It also reflects the current crop of country stars that appear more like rockers than their old school predecessors.

Country in the day was a bit more twangy and rural (think the Carter family). What’s even more grand about the picture is that Bridges and Farrell (and even Duvall who also produced and starred in the similar Tender Mercies which won him an Oscar) sing their own songs and aren’t bad.

Everything in the film adds a touch of realism that bolstered by the fantastic performances of Bridges and Gyllenhaal (who was also nominated for an Oscar but didn’t win). Play on, Bad Blake, play on.

Crazy Heart is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include 11 minutes of deleted scenes and the 2 minute theatrical trailer.

Crazy Heart is a fantastic film with an equally fantastic soundtrack. Jeff Bridges has never been finer and Oscar gold was his and the music one as well. Old school country stars appeared to have a tougher row to hoe compared to the glitz and glamour of today.

It was hard on their bodies, but those demons seemed to gift them with some great songs and bad boy character. They had to grow up sometime though and the journey of Bad Blake only endears him to us thanks to the Bridges touch.