Images courtesy of Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox
Review by Ryan Wilson
The month of May officially kicks off the summer movie season. But while we're flocking to comic book movies with fast food tie-ins, it's also a good time of year to balance these popcorn spectacles with some of the smaller, more character-driven films that didn't see a wide release during the winter months.
Crazy Heart, released this past week on DVD, should appeal to any serious country music fan. The wild heart of the title belongs to one Bad Blake, an aging singer-songwriter entering the winter of his life with a number of demons. He’s played by Jeff Bridges, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.
When we first see Blake, he's stepping out of his vehicle to play a gig at a bowling alley, and he's swearing about it. This might tickle hardcore Jeff Bridges fans, who might associate Bridges and bowling alleys with his character "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski. Personally, I’d give Bridges a special Oscar for playing The Dude, truly one of the best comedic performances from the last two decades. In every frame of that film, Bridges is doing something physical. And the same can be said for him in Crazy Heart.
Only here he’s so subtle. Some have criticized his winning Best Actor, but I was fascinated watching Bad Blake light his cigarettes. He's a bear of a man with equal parts charm and disorder, a guy who can write beautiful songs but who can't slow down to savor his songs' meaning. Time has now caught up with Bad Blake, along with a number of health and alcohol problems, and Bridges lumbers through his scenes with exactly the right gait. When he sings, "The Weary Kind," we believe him.
The bulk of the film focuses on Bad Blake taking stock of his life after meeting the much younger Maggie Gyllenhaal, a reporter/mother attracted to Blake's genius. We've seen this story so many times before: the country star redeeming himself. It was most notably told in 1983’s Tender Mercies, where Robert Duvall played a tortured singer taken in by a good woman. In a sort of homage to that film, Duvall appears in Crazy Heart as one of Blake’s best friends, telling him not to give up on forgiveness.
None of these story elements stick with you as much as Bad Blake himself. I was more interested in the sub-plot involving Colin Farrell, who plays Tommy, Blake's mentee who now eclipses him commercially. Younger fans are flocking to Tommy’s stadium tours, while Blake plays honky-tonks with wounded pride. The best scenes are when Blake and Tommy meet and tentatively communicate. Tommy wants more songs from his mentor, while Blake utters disbelief that Tommy would sell his CDs at his own concerts. Their relationship reminds me the late great Townes Van Zandt’s mentoring Steve Earle and how he taunted Earle for signing with a large Nashville label.
Most of Crazy Heart rings true, if not because of Bridges, then because of the music. Legendary producer T-Bone Barnet organized the soundtrack. Burnett, who produced the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, has worked with nearly every great singer songwriter, so he knows this territory. Here he teams with young alt-country singer Ryan Bingham to create some sublime original material, ultimately performed wonderfully by Bridges. Yes, he can also sing, making Crazy Heart enjoyable on more than one level.
If Crazy Heart strikes you as too weathered, I'd recommend renting An Education, another subtle story, this one about a British teen coming of age in the early 1960s. Carey Mulligan was nominated for Best Actress as Jenny, a student preparing to take her boards to enter Oxford University, only to have her head turned by a more mature Peter Sarsgaard.
At the heart of the film rests England's rigid class system. Sarsgaard’s character frees Jenny by simply inviting her into his world of jazz clubs, concerts, and weekend trips to Paris. He’s so smooth he even cons Jenny's parents that he knows C.S. Lewis.
I won't reveal much more other than to say that, like Crazy Heart, we've seen this story told countless times. But like Crazy Heart, the story isn't really the focus. Famed novelist Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay centered around Jenny, and through her eyes we experience the excitement and dread that is her future.
We understand when she considers ending her traditional education for the fast and exciting education Sarsgaard's mod-hipster provides. And we also understand completely when confronted by her elders, she asks them why she’s studying so hard. So her life can end up as dull as theirs
Besides Mulligan’s fiery performance, there’s also great support from Alfred Molina as Jenny’s uptight father, Olivia Williams as her encouraging teacher, and Emma Thompson as an anti-Semitic school mistress.
Both Crazy Heart and An Education rely on audiences to care about not just their characters but their worlds as well. And isn't that what we want in our better movies: to consider a life away from our own, yet one in which we can see ourselves? It might be something to consider while watching all those blockbuster explosions this summer.
Take 5 on Film is a production of Delta College's WUCX Q 90.1, airing every Saturday at 8:35 a.m. and again at 9:35 a.m. and produced by Jennifer Vande Zande. For more information, visit deltabroadcasting.org.
© Ryan Wilson, 2010