Review: Crazy Heart
The Pitch: Jeff Bridges goes for the Oscar, but does he deserve it for this?
The Review: I have to be honest – I’m about as much of a fan of country music as I am of having pirahnas put down my trousers. So my hope here was always that the movie could stand on its own terms, and allow the music to complement it.
And what is here is a strong character study, centring around former Jeff Bridges’ Bad, who’s in love with a whisky bottle, but now falling for Maggie Gyllenhall’s journalist.
Bridges and Gyllenhall are both excellent, as you’d expect, and Colin Farrell does what he can with a limited role. But this is more about the characters than the story, which is slight and never really rises above TV movie melodrama.
Thankfully, some of the music is actually very good, and helps us to warm to the central pairing. But the best country music comes from pain, like the pain of trouser pirahnas, and there’s maybe not enough here on screen to bring the whole thing together – at least the ending doesn’t quite follow the expected path.
Why see it at the cinema: Bridges does actually manage to hold the screen for the running time, so see him on the biggest one you can.
The Score: 6/10
The Movie Evangelist 