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Jeff Bridges has been sweeping the awards this season for his role in Crazy Heart, and his performance alone is a reason you should see this film. There are acting performances and then there are rare performances where an actor completely emerses themselves and gets lost, completely embodying a character. We as the audience forget that it is an actor altogether. Performances like Jamie Foxx in Ray, and now Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart are two such performances.
Bridges plays Bad Blake, a down-and-out, past-his-prime country music singer who hasn't written a new song in over five years. He leads a lonely life on the road, and has had to deal with going from having a hit country song, to playing at bowling alleys with a pick-up band. What we see immediately though is that Bad Blake has many demons, that have completely taken a hold of his life. He is a full-blown alcoholic, who drifts through life without reason. Maggie Gyllenhaal enters as a reporter and single mother who wants to interview Bad Blake, and the two form a budding romance. He has people around him who love him, such as his manager (James Keane) and a former protege turned superstar, Tommy Sweet (in a miscast role by Colin Farrel). But Blake has convinced himself so deeply that he is a failure, that he doesn't see these two as helpful, loving friends. In one very telling scene, he builds up Tommy Sweet to be his evil nemesis, but when they meet in a bar, you can see the love and admiration Sweet has for Blake.
Jeff Bridges carries the film, which at it's center is a movie about alcoholism and its effects. It echoes the movie "The Wrestler", although it is much lighter in tone, kind of like if "The Wrestler" was made into an after-school special on Country Music TV. Bad Blake isolates himself from reality and drowns his depression by drinking, his only escape. He wears big sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and has a beard that all but covers up his face. At one point someone even says, "I can barely see you", and I think that's how Bad Blake would want it. Even his name, "Bad", let's us know how he views himself. Being reduced to a bowling alley lounge act, four failed marriages, an estranged son, and years of loneliness have taken their toll. A doctor tells Blake he's got to change his ways or he'll die. Blake leaves the hospital and goes straight to the bar to ponder what the doctor told him.
The reason the movie works is that Bridges gives us a glimpse inside of Bad Blake, and he has a glimmer of hope and a longing for redemption. But like many who are strickened with alcoholism, he is battling something bigger than himself. It takes a near tragedy in the film to shake Blake back into reality. But as it goes, sometimes there are consequences for your actions.
To beat a dead horse, Jeff Bridges' performance elevates Crazy Heart past the point of soap-opera, melo-drama into a believable story about the effects of alcoholism. His Oscar nomination for Best Actor is well deserved. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and while she is very good in Crazy Heart, there were so many other strong supporting performances this year that her nomination is a bit of a surprise. It's almost as if Bridges was so good, that the Academy couldn't contain their accolades to just him alone, and so had to nominate those in close proximity to him as well.
Crazy Heart though while a bit soft, effectively tackles the demons of alcoholism through the strength of Jeff Bridges' performance.
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[Crazy Heart nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Actor, Best Support Actress, Best Music (Original Song)]
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