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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/24/2009 : 12:17:45
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Crazy Heart
Lots to say about this C&W story based on a novel by all accounts painfully well-reserached. It's the story of a former high-flying singer/songwriter who's on the skids and ready for skid row. I suspect what's wrong with the film is its relentless faithfulness to the book.
Jeff Bridges is Bad. Bad Blake, that is, the eponymous deadbeat. And when you find out his real first name you'll see why he chose this more dangerous moniker.
But, though he's made really, truly bad choices, he's not bad. Through all his battles with the personal demons that love to haunt musicians, Bad exudes a certain charm which keeps his diehard fans loyal and his legend alive.
We meet Bad when he's scraping the bottom of his has-been barrel. The problem is, before he starts on the path of redemption, we're dragged through scene after heart-breaking scene of pretty predicatable behavior ... toward colleagues past and present [including Colin Farrell as his former protegee, now huge star -- a wonderful cameo!], former friends, strangers, and eventually a lover in the form of Maggie Gyllenhaal. Now, she's incapable of a bad performance, but it's symptomatic of the script that neither she nor any of the subsidiary characters are challenged. That's all saved for Bridges.
And, of course, he meets that challenge head on. He's simply magnificent, and - considering some of the dreck he's been in - he must have been waiting for a role like this for decades. I don't know whether he based his character on Kris Kristofferson, but I wonder how ole Kris will react when he sees Bridges's portrait. Like he's watching a ghost of himself, I bet.
The film's a bit of an inside job. Bridges, Robert Duvall [who plays Bad's bartending pal], and the amazing T-Bone Burnett are all producers. They balance out newcomer director Scott Cooper, who manages more than he directs. No bad thing, as it turns out.
I just wish he'd have slashed more brutally through the jungle of repetition. That would have been a good thing!
Dunno if he'll win, but Bridges will be nominated for Best Actor.
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/26/2010 : 01:38:16
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Crazy Heart
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Dunno if he'll win, but Bridges will be nominated for Best Actor.
I'm glad he won, I really am. But. The win really seems to me as though it was intended for Bridges's performance in The Big Lebowski and Mickey Rourke's in The Wrestler. Because the former film and portrayal are better than those here and the latter are... how can I put it?... EXACTLY THE SAME as them. Both films even have the haggard old man managing to win over a much younger single mother of one, but at least in The Wrestler she isn't quite so much younger or on the up in life. Now, I quite like country music and I quite don't like wrestling, but that's not really enough to justify this remake for me. Even Colin Farrell, who leaks sex wherever he goes, manages to be fairly bland in this. When the little boy goes missing, how is he supposed to have got past? The barman says there is no other way out. I was watching for him (as it was obvious what was going to happen) and didn't see him. And the ending is just horrible. It's not bold; it's like when someone's bored of doing an essay and can't be bothered to write the conclusion.
I'm a generous scorer and have given it 4/5, but I think that's just based on my liking the actors in general and the fact that, originality and finale aside, it's pretty well done. |
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Crazy Heart
