I don’t like when a movie gives me writer’s block. I know I enjoyed Crazy Heart, but I just don’t really have any decent reasons why. It’s like Apple Jacks; fuck you if they don’t taste like apple; pussy doesn’t taste like kittens, but you don’t hear anyone complain about that. But alas, it has spectacular acting by Jeff Bridges and I fully understand why he was won the Oscar for it and Maggie Gyllenhaal does superb, too, though I can’t tell if I just didn’t realize how old she was or if she just doesn’t age well. The idea of her and old fart Jeff Bridges gettin’ it on didn’t seem that awkward to me in this movie for some reason, which, for its own reason is pretty damn awkward.
Because it’s a theme of all western-country movies, Crazy Heart focuses on a cranky old man and his road to redemption because, let’s face it, zombie vs. werewolf movies are just a bit overdone at the moment and Cowboys vs. Aliens kinda ruined the whole “experimental-western” genre for a little while. So, back to cranky old man, in this case, Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), a country singer who’s successful (I guess) fire has all been extinguished and the resulting smoke mirrors that of the dingy bars and bowling alleys he must play at where he caters to audiences who are so behind the times that they sway REAL lighters back and forth during slow songs instead of pop open the iPhone app.
Regardless, Bad Blake never misses a show…or a drink…or a chance to drink at a show…or MILF’s and he staggers around feeling sorry for himself for a reason that the movie never really cares to explore. He’s a “functional alcoholic” though, like a three wheeled car is “an automobile capable of making incredibly sharp turns.” He's an amazing song-writer, with powerful lines and lyrics spewing out of him as often as they do in this blog...about one an hour.
Regardless, Bad Blake never misses a show…or a drink…or a chance to drink at a show…or MILF’s and he staggers around feeling sorry for himself for a reason that the movie never really cares to explore. He’s a “functional alcoholic” though, like a three wheeled car is “an automobile capable of making incredibly sharp turns.” He's an amazing song-writer, with powerful lines and lyrics spewing out of him as often as they do in this blog...about one an hour.
On one of his routine stops, he meets Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and her kid (Dummy Head) and all of a sudden feels like he has something to be happy about. So he starts up a relationship and spends as much time as he can with them, which is nice to watch that kind of transformation from a drunk, except it doesn’t really satisfy him that much because it doesn’t take until he loses the damn kid before he realizes he should probably stop drinking. And considering how he responds to that, it doesn’t seem so much like a moment of “this is what happens when I drink” more than it does a “I need to show off a more drastic apology so Jean will sleep with me again.”
Like I said, I don’t really know why I enjoyed this movie, it really just stayed on auto-pilot and never let up. Bad Blake is a fun character to watch, but he’s not anybody who I’ll look back on explore the way he handled his life. I won’t look back on any of the direction of this movie and find anything to marvel at. It was just a good watch. And because this review has taken me three days to write because I couldn’t think of anything more than that, and I don’t want IT to start going on autopilot, I’m just going to give it 7 dustbusters out of 10 and call it good.
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