Jeff Bridges anchors CRAZY HEART as Bad Blake, faded Western Music legend. [NOTE: The film calls his music Country, but it’s simplifying for the uninitiated: he’s doing straight Western, with the occasional detour into Zydeco. How can you tell the difference? It’s easy: if it sounds kind of like Country, but doesn’t suck, it’s Western.] He’s a degenerate alcoholic: drunk, broke, and giving lousy performances to tiny crowds in crappy venues. He once mentored a promising musician who has since gone on to wealth and fame, and his envy wears at him as surely as his alcoholism. And here’s the magic of casting: because it’s Jeff Bridges under that grizzle and gristle, we as the audience apprehend why people put up with him. He’s just so damn gifted, so charismatic, that we put up with him, too. We like Bad Blake. We want him to pull out of his death spiral.
Maybe he will. He meets a reporter (Maggie Gyllenhall) who may represent his last chance. And here’s where CRAZY HEART’s understanding asserts itself. The Gyllenhall role could have gone wrong in so many ways, but the character works because we believe her. We believe that she’s smart, yet capable of making poor choices. We believe that she’s wise, yet has room to grow. We believe that she believes she can handle an alcoholic. We believe that she’s old enough to know better yet still young enough to believe.
As the story develops, we go on to meet that once-promising musician and find, to our pleasant surprise, that he’s a decent guy. This role, too, could have gone wrong in so many ways, but CRAZY HEART presents this character (well played by Colin Farrel – I like him so much more when he’s, y’know, acting) like a real guy. Yes, he’s a guy who pursues fortune, but there’s nothing wrong with that in America. More importantly, he’s a guy who sees Bad Blake for who he is: a genius drowning in cheap whiskey.
And so it goes. CRAZY HEART is a film about the way real people respond in real ways to real problems. Bad Blake’s a committed alcoholic and musical genius and a decent guy when he’s sober. Many alcoholics find death at the bottom of a bottle, but this film makes us hope Blake doesn’t. It understands our hearts, and plays them to create one hell of a film.
