Crazy Heart (2009)

"A small movie perfectly scaled to the big performance at its center.  A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"Crazy Heart is blessed with so many marvelous moments, lovely lines and vivid characters.  Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
"Crazy Heart is the real thing, and a real gem  Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Editor's Note Jeff Bridges stars in this drama based on Thomas Cobb's first novel about an alcoholic country singer. The musician's career is going downhill as he watches his protégé's star ascend, but his encounters with a journalist (THE DARK KNIGHT's Maggie Gyllenhaal) might just keep him from hitting rock bottom. Oscar winner Robert Duvall costars and serves as one of the film's producers.

	Maggie Gyllenhaal
	Robert Duvall
	Jeff Bridges
	Rob Carliner - Producer
	Scott Cooper - Screenwriter
	T-Bone Burnett - Composer
	Robert Duvall - Producer
	Thomas Cobb - Source Writer
	Scott Cooper - Director

Variety
"Jeff Bridges is the whole show here as a cowboy-style crooner who wrestles with his demons in ways that easily engage an audiences' sympathies." 11/29/2009

Hollywood Reporter
"Bridges more than delivers the goods for Oscar eligibility. He is the mesmerizing, dangerous, unpredictable heart of CRAZY HEART." 11/29/2009

Box Office
4 stars out of 5 -- "A richly-realized, deeply-heartfelt character study in the vein of TENDER MERCIES and BOUND FOR GLORY....[A] sterling directing debut by actor Scott Cooper..." 12/01/2009

Entertainment Weekly
"Bridges' guileless performance makes this piquant little indie tale of country music, redemption, and the love of a pretty younger woman such a sad-song charmer." -- Grade: B 12/18/2009

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Cooper, an actor himself, shows a keen eye for authentic detail and an instinct for bringing out the best in the cast. Maggie Gyllenhaal is funny, touching and vital..." 12/24/2009

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "[The film is] raised by the heartfelt and raw portrayal that Bridges makes look effortless. And he can sing, too." 12/16/2009

Los Angeles Times
"Cooper, himself an actor and musician with an eye for authenticity, has given Bridges the opportunity to deliver an all-out performance....It's Bridges' gift to make it seem honest and real." 12/11/2009

Wall Street Journal
"CRAZY HEART is blessed with so many marvelous moments, lovely lines and vivid characters that it's hard to know where to begin..." 12/16/2009

New York Times
"[A] small movie perfectly scaled to the big performance at its center....You hear songs by Townes van Zandt and Waylon Jennings, and you may also think of Willie Nelson and some others." 12/16/2009

A.V. Club
"Bridges' humane, deeply empathetic lead performance makes it easy to root for one man's redemption." -- Grade: B 12/14/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
4 stars out of 4 -- "It's a measure of Bridges, Duvall, Gyllenhaal and Harper that they create completely different characters." 12/23/2009

Movieline
"A quiet, conventional film with a surprisingly firm grip, writer/director Scott Cobb's CRAZY HEART will choke you up the same way it kept you hanging in over its shaggy, two-hour shuffle: effortlessly." 12/16/2009

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] poignant portrait of a washed up country singer....It's Bridges himself who makes this straightforward amble down the rocky road to redemption one worth taking..." 01/26/2010

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[P]layed with a strength of feeling....It is deceptively affecting; a classic both in form and quality -- this year's THE WRESTLER." 02/12/2010

Sight and Sound Critic
"CRAZY HEART's energies and its real interest are centred in its superb depiction of a musician's life on the road, right down to the high-calibre country songs..." 03/01/2010

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "The songs are catchy, and there's also a sense of realism and believability throughout..." 04/20/2010

Los Angeles Times 9 of 10
There's a powerful symmetry at work in Crazy Heart that's impossible to resist. It's a parallel between protagonist Bad Blake, a country singer whose entire life has led him to a nadir of disintegration, and star Jeff Bridges, whose exceptional film choices have put him at the height of his powers just in time to make Mr. Blake the capstone role of his career...It's a mark of how fine a performance Bridges gives that it succeeds beautifully even though the besotted, bedeviled country singer has been an overly familiar popular culture staple (Rip Torn in Payday, Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies, Hank Williams and Merle Haggard in their own lives) for forever...On a par with Bridges' acting, and a sine qua non for Crazy Heart's success, is the excellent music he sings. There are great country songs, including Townes Van Zandt's "If I Needed You" and Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" laced throughout the film, but the heart of Bad's act are the appealing melodies written for the picture by superb music producer T Bone Burnett and the late guitar player/songwriter Stephen Bruton. (Burnett and Ryan Bingham wrote the closing ballad "The Weary Kind.") Hearing Bad's way with these enticing songs delineates his character as much as his words or his actions...Filmmaker Cooper, who displays a relaxed directorial style, is a lifelong fan of country music. He'd initially wanted to do a film about Merle Haggard but then came across the Thomas Cobb novel his script is based on. Inevitably, some of the story has a familiar and formulaic feel, like something we've seen before, but at key points Crazy Heart displays a welcome integrity and resists choosing the easiest paths...Bad grouses a lot about Tommy being ungrateful, always wanting new songs from Bad to record. But once we meet the singer, played by Colin Farrell, of all people, in an unbilled cameo, he's not at all the way we picture him. Farrell, who sings a great duet with Bridges, is one of the film's surprise treats, proving, as he did in In Bruges, that he is more relaxed and effective in off-beat alternate leads than classic hero parts. Crazy Heart isn't only one of Bridges' most memorable roles, it's one of Farrell's as well. - Kenneth Turan

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
Some actors are blessed. Jeff Bridges is one of them. Ever since his breakthrough role in The Last Picture Show in 1971, he has, seemingly without effort, created a series of characters who we simply believe, even the alien "Starman." He doesn't do this with mannerisms but with their exclusion; his acting is as clear as running water. Look at him playing Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. The notion of a broke-down, boozy country singer is an archetype in pop culture. We've seen this story before. The difference is, Bad Blake makes us believe it happened to him...Bad Blake was a star once, years ago. He has lyrics that go, "I used to be somebody, but now I'm somebody else." His loyal manager (Paul Herman) once booked him in top venues. As Crazy Heart opens, Bad is pulling up to a bowling alley. "It's this year's The Wrestler, " one of my colleagues observed after the screening. Yes. Bad still has a few loyal fans, but you get the feeling they've followed him to the bottom. He has a son he's lost touch with and hasn't written a good song in a long time. In the old days, he toured with a kid named Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell). Now Tommy is a big star, but contrary to the conventions of such stories, hasn't forgotten his old teacher and remains loyal...The movie knows more about alcoholism than many films do, and has more of that wisdom onscreen, not least from the Duvall character. Gyllenhaal's character, too, is not an enabler or an alibi artist, but a woman who feels with her mind as well as her heart. Watch her as she and Bridges find the same level of mutual confidence for their characters. One of the reasons we trust the film is that neither Bad nor Jean is acting out illusions. Colin Farrell, too, is on the same page. We understand why he stays loyal, to the degree that he can. This is a rare story that knows people don't always forget those who helped them on the way up...Jeff Bridges is a virtual certainty to win his first Oscar, after four nominations. The movie was once set for 2010 release (and before that, I hear, was going straight to cable). The more people saw it, the more they were convinced this was a great performance. Fox Searchlight stepped in, bought the rights and screened it extensively in December for critics' groups, who all but unanimously voted for Bridges as the year's best actor. We're good for something. - Roger Ebert