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I wasn't exactly sure of what to make of this film when I first heard about it. I am not really a big fan of music films but this is something even more personal than just music. It is a film of pure beauty but a film of heartbreak as well. Most films about music or involve music are bio-pics but this is something that I would say only involves it and it isn't a bio-pic but it sure would have been a pretty inspiring true story.
I would call this The Wrestler of 2009 because there are just so many similarities between that film and Crazy Heart. For example, both leading male characters are aging veterans who are like living life alone who attempt to go back to something from their pasts, they are both specialists at activities and are famous for it and few others. Also, the critical response and Oscar nominations they both received were similar.
Jeff Bridges' performance was amazing as Bad Blake! I would say that after Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds, it is the performance of the year but it is the best leading male performance of 2009. His performance was just like Mickey Rourke's in The Wrestler and now after Jeff Bridges winning the Oscar, he deserved it but it makes up for Mickey Rourke losing the Oscar to Sean Penn when he was the favourite. Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers the performance of her career thus far but Crazy Heart isn't my favourite film that she has starred in. In fact, there are quite a few that she's been in that I liked more than Crazy Heart but her performance in this one was the best she's delivered so far. She deserved her Oscar nomination but didn't quite deserve to win it. Robert Duvall's supporting performance was brilliant as well. Unfortunately, he's losing tone now as he's got older (well, really, after appearing in the first two Godfather films as Tom Hagen and Apocalypse Now as Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore (all three films are by the same director: Francis Ford Coppola). Colin Farrell's role may have been underrated and perhaps something that not that many were aware of seeing as it was a minor role but he did a good job despite that.
Crazy Heart won 2 Academy Awards out of 3 nominations (won Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Original Song (''The Weary Kind'') but was nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and it won those two awards at the Golden Globes too and rightly so because they deserve it. For the first time since Adrien Brody won Best Actor in The Pianist back in 2002, I actually agreed that the actor who actually won totally deserved to win and was better than the others.
Overall, Crazy Heart is an underrated film that I really enjoyed. It's perhaps not a Best Picture worthy film but definitely one of the 2009 films that need watching and needn't be missed. If you really like The Wrestler, then you will really like this one. Bravo, Bridges and Gyllenhaal!
8/10
