‘Crazy Heart’: If only it was all music
After the release of “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” John C. Reilly literally took his character and a makeshift band on tour to play live in front of true fans and the curious. The whole thing was a big, fat joke, but the musicians were skilled, Reilly charmed the crowd and the music trumped anything you’d hear in a bar on a given night.
If only someone could convince Jeff Bridges and T-Bone Burnett to follow suit in order to promote “Crazy Heart.” It’s a pipe dream, of course. The film has already garnered deafening Oscar buzz with Bridges almost a shoe-in to win the Best Actor prize (among the other glittering statuettes he’s up for in the coming month) and he’s far too much of a serious actor to agree to such a crass parlor trick. But, “Crazy Heart in Concert” would save folks the trouble of sitting through the two-plus hour glorified made-for-TV movie.
That characterization sounds harsh, but save for Bridges nuanced performance as washed-up country singer Bad Blake and the deliriously moody music written by Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton (Ryan Bingham contributed “The Weary Kind” – the film’s tour de force), the film has “Lifetime” written all over it.
Bridges plays Otis “Bad” Blake at the tail-end of his career as a drunk, bumbling Kris Kristofferson-like fellow. The days of tour buses, roadies and plush catering tables have long since passed. He now drives solo cross country in a jalopy to perform in dive bars and bowling alleys to a handful of loyal listeners. Maybe a fading groupie will pass him her number after the show, but he’s more than likely to head back to the hotel and its On Demand porn with a bottle in one hand and in the other….
“Crazy Heart” bypasses the traditional biopic clichés. We don’t see flashbacks of Blake’s glory days accompanied by the roar of adoring fans. We don’t even catch a glimpse of what he looked like before the rigors of the road and the meals made of whiskey turned him into a grizzled old man with a protruding beer belly and a near-constant undone belt buckle/top button combo.
As evidence of Blake’s legacy we’re given the music and when Bridges takes the stage, one can see the swaggering, outlaw youth that made all the girls scream and the boys run out and buy copy cat Stetsons underneath the vomit stains and dilated pupils. Buoyed by Bridges’ weathered growl, the dusty two-step of “Hold On You” and the feisty, clanging “Somebody Else” surely has Keith Urban and the rest shaking in their boots.
Blake strikes up an ill-fated relationship with a young, small town journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who crafts questions with the same deft as she chooses potential mates to bring home to her four-year-old son, while trying to convince his former protégé-turned-celebrity (Colin Farrell) to share some of his star power by recording an album of duets.
We won’t spoil the ending. Besides, it doesn’t really matter if Blake gets the girl or releases a chart-topping comeback album. Any songwriter worth their salt knows it’s all about the song and Blake etches out a heartbreaking classic.
“The Weary Kind” is available on iTunes and there’s video of Ryan Bingham singing the tune floating around YouTube. You’ll even be forced to listen to the song just by visiting the official “Crazy Heart” web site. One piece of advice: Don’t! Stay away from the site and put down the charge card. In a plot devoid of twists and edge-of-your-seat conflicts, “The Weary Kind” serves as a satisfying coda and any preview of the song’s lyrics or penetrating melody cancels out the need to see the movie.
