MisenPOPic Movie Review: Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges might be one of the best actors of my generation even if his work has gone unrecognized during award seasons. Although he has been nominated four times for his acting performances in films like Starman and The Contender, he has yet to win the big one. He's never been an A-List actor, but he has put together a nice body of work. Personally, I thought he was outstanding as "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski, another stinker movie only helped by his performance. His thirty year plus career might be the only justification for him being the frontrunner to win his first Oscar this year for his role of Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. Although he was magnificent in this movie and turned in a top-notch performance, I still believe that Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker and even George Clooney (and I can't stand Clooney!) in The Up In The Air are more deserving and turned in memorable performances. But like the Academy did for Paul Newman in 1986 and Al Pacino in 1993 but haven't done in awhile, the Best Actor award based on overall body of work and a good performance in a bad movie will go to Jeff Bridges.

Some notes on the movie, Crazy Heart. Jeff Bridges is getting tons of acclaim, we all know that. But what about the actual film itself? I now understand why the movie itself wasn't nominated for Best Picture or screenplay. The film was very slow-paced, and I'm not quite sure what all the buzz was about as the film wasn't a movie I would even remember in detail by next February. Also the movie's storyline was all over the place, and a lot of minor characters like those played by Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall might have been interesting but weren't fully developed for me to even care. In fact, Duvall's character is introduced much later in the film with very little information given as to what his role in Bad Blake's life actually was. And uggh!!! Maggie Gyllenhaal is the female lead in this picture. She might be the darling of independent films, but she must have blown a few movie executives to keep getting decent roles in Oscar worthy movies. She and Bridges had absolutely no chemistry in this movie, and her acting was the absolute pits. And naturally, she received a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but I don't think she stands much of a chance of winning. The redeeming aspect of the film was the music. T-Bone Burnett gets a lot of hype for his movie scores, but the songs he wrote that were performed by Jeff Bridges were terrific. I hope to get a copy of the soundtrack soon from a good friend, and won't be unhappy if the song "Weary Kind" wins the Oscar for best song from a movie. Jeff Bridges singing country tunes was great, maybe that's why he got a spot in the new We Are The World song for Haiti.

Grade: C (Did not meet expectations. A nice performance by Jeff Bridges, but nothing earth-shattering. Check out the soundtrack, but stay away from this movie!)