Posted by jayray in 
“The harder the life, the sweeter the song.”
Crazy Heart was insanely good. In fact, I would venture to say it was my favorite movie of 2009. Jeff Bridges should earn an Oscar for his role as Bad Blake. He was Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and The Dude all rolled into one. Of course this dude is a little worse for the wear. But he’s still the underdog you want to root for. Colin Farrell is likeable and almost understated as Tommy Sweet the country singer / movie star who used to play in Bad’s band before hitting the big time with songs written by Bad. Then there’s Robert Duvall who plays Bad’s best friend Wayne. Robert Duvall is one of the greatest actors of all time in my book (page 247) and he certainly doesn’t change my opinion in this movie. Hell, I can’t even tell he’s acting. And last, but by no means least there’s Maggie Gyllenhaal who warmly and thoughtfully plays Jean Craddock, the journalist who falls for that bad mother…shut yo mouth I’m talkin’ bout Bad Blake. Give her an Oscar too I tells ya!
This is not a love story. It’s a story of redemption. Ok so maybe it’s a little bit a love story. But it’s more a story of redemption. Bad Blake is a hard-working, hard-drinking country singer who never quite hit it big. Now he’s at the tail-end of his career and still playing bowling alleys or whereever else he can get booked. He throws down a country song as well as he throws up between sets. He knows he has a problem, but he doesn’t really care. Until…
<See movie here>
See it yet?
Ok then I’ll leave you with this suggestion, if you only see one critically acclaimed movie between now and the Academy Awards please do yourself a favor and see Crazy Heart. It’ll give you someone to root for.
