Crazy Heart is no Lifetime movie
A response to Janine’s Crazy Heart: If Only It Was All Music
A live concert featuring the music from the movie “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…the film has ‘Lifetime’ written all over it.”
-Janine
It’s easy to characterize Crazy Heart as Lifetime fluff. You watch the previews, you think you’ve seen this movie before. Heck, even while you’re watching it, you can probably guess what’s going to happen and be right. This story’s been told. Sure. Many many many times - it’s been told. There have been at least two other major musical biopics in recent years that have garnered much acclaim and attention…(even though they told essentially the same story)…
Ray - a real piece of horse shit, which panders to its audience a terrific impersonation (by the terrific ham Jamie Foxx) to make them feel as though they are watching something deeper than merely a checklist of events.
Walk the Line - even though it fumbles with the requisite crisis and simplistic psychological cause for said crisis (a prick father and dead brother, in this…racism and a dead mother, in Ray…), the performances are alive, the music is alive, the whole thing feels very alive and very exciting.
And then there’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which rips these and many others apart (and somehow manages to create a sort of liveliness of its own).
These stories CAN be told effectively, entertainingly, deeply. Even though they’ve been told before.
Even though they’ve been told before…on Lifetime.
Yes, goddammit, for the millionth time in print - Jeff Bridges is fucking incredible in this movie. He lives in this character, relaxes in this character, charms in this character, and sometimes pukes violently (VIOLENTLY)…in this character - this character, this dude who feels so real - the larger-than-life, but all too human…Bad Blake.
But enough about him. Bridges isn’t the only doing heavy lifting here. There’s so much more to this movie than one goddamn performance. I’m not going to make a list - that’d be silly. Let’s just say that all the elements come together here to create something that feels alive (the catch-phrase of the day) and fun and moving. It’s good storytelling that doesn’t get in its own way.
There are moments here that are little masterpieces. Beautiful little moments - scattered about without much effort. Just watching Bad Blake meeting people - and he meets a lot of people - is such a pleasure…sharing a few words (kind or surly), negotiating a bar bill, negotiating a one night stand, arguing with the sound check, maybe making some music before a gig…
Would a Lifetime movie have that stunning, quiet scene with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character Jean watching Bad Blake write a song in her bed and realize, devastatingly, everything she is going to remember and feel about that moment well into her future? That scene killed me. Just about every scene between Jean and Bad Blake killed me. Theirs is some of the sexiest chemistry I have seen in a movie for years.
“In a plot devoid of twists and edge-of-your-seat conflicts, [the song]“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.”
Yes, Janine, the music is genuinely exceptional. And, no, there are no twists or edge-of-your-seat conflicts. We’ve seen that. Many times. World-weary but talented man, haunted, tormented, broken, but charismatic and exciting, an understanding woman, a breakdown, a deeper breakdown, a cry for help, a slow ascent from hell, bitter-sweet redemption. Yeah. Got it.
Crazy Heart follows it right down the line. One long cliché, I admit it. But one of the reasons we have clichés is because clichés are so often lived. Or dreamed. Either way, there is truth to be found there. Some use clichés for cynical reasons. Others…well, for that big T word, I just used. I believe this movie is in love with that big T. And it shows. Achingly, at times.
This movie is not perfect. It is probably not a masterpiece. But it is beautiful. And it is no Lifetime movie.
