Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges does the sit-up-and-beg-for-an-Oscar routine in his role as an aging, alcoholic country music has-been. But he does it well, and he deserves his Oscar win. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also surprisingly good as the woman who is young enough to be his third mail-order bride. She plays Jean Craddock, a small-town reporter who, shockingly, dreams of bigger things. Together, they enact one of the most standard stories in the Hollywood plot heap. Still, they do a good job, helped immensely by T-Bone Burnett’s sly soundtrack and some nice supporting work from Colin Farrell (yes, Colin Farrell!) and Robert Duvall (who probably spends the whole movie thinking, “Didn’t I already make Tender Mercies, like, 25 years ago?”). So, while Crazy Heart is a collection of clichés, the clichés are given new life and some new interpretations in this first-time effort from director Scott Cooper. I can’t say this is a great film, but if you go in expecting nothing more than a genre film, you’ll find a well-executed one.