film reviews

Everyone loves a good comeback story, and the reason we do is because they mirror how life really is. Hollywood can always come up with the happy endings, but the comeback story, it makes its own ending. Crazy Heart is one of those stories, a story of a man hitting bottom and then finding redemption. Written and directed by Scott Cooper and adapted from the novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb, it is the perfect story about life. Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) has seen it all in his life, and after a successful music career, life has seemed to have caught up with him. Fifty seven years old, broke and stuck playing small taverns and bowling alleys, and for most of the time drunk. Blake spends his days complaining to his manger about the gigs he has to play and being angry at another singer’s success. Blake had mentored this singer, and is jealous of his success and the success he thought he himself should have had. Everything starts to change when he performs in Santa Fe, and he is interviewed by an inspiring reporter. The reporter is named Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and she is taken in by this old country star’s charm and soon become more then what was intended. Blake though is given another chance to play for a large audience, when the singer he mentored, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), ask Blake to open for him. With sometime between shows, Blake decides to head back to Santa Fe, so that he can spend more time with Jean and her son. On the way Blake falls asleep at the wheel and wakes up with a broken ankle and a concussion. With the help of Jean he is able to recover enough to drive back home to Houston, so that he can start writing new music. When asked where he gets his inspiration for his songs, Blake simply replies life unfortunately. After returning home, Blake spends time with his old friend Wayne (Robert Duvall) and waits for Jean to come and visit him. When Jean does come, her trip is cut short after Blake has a mishap with her son. Having hit bottom Blake gets help and becomes sober, and starts to rediscover life again. Armed with a broken heart, he sets out to write some of the best songs of his career. Jeff Bridges gives one of the best performances in his long storied career, and when you hear that the role was written for him you can see why. Everything about him is Bad Blake and it hard to tell where the actor stops and the character begins. Even with a good story of redemption and a great supporting cast, the film wouldn’t be the same without its leading man. Being a movie about a musician, the films music doesn’t let you down; instead it reminds you what good music can sound like. Crazy Heart is a great comeback story, but what it does even better, is show us that no matter how dark it may seem, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Brian Taylor