Crazy Heart = Crazy Good!

Hi everybody!
While watching Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART, I was first reminded of Michelle Pfeiffer's Oscar nominated performance in their THE FABULOUS BAKER BROTHERS. Pfeiffer managed to suggest someone who could be a successful singer, which was quite surprising in that low-key musical pretending to be a slice of life. Bridges and Pfeiffer had one of those movie romances which dared to have an unhappy ending, both of them too attractive to ever have walked away from each other on the silver screen, which gave the movie some ragged integrity. However, looking back, that movie was more a wonderful showcase for Pfeiffer than a story honestly told. (The same with Steve Kloves' FLESH AND BONE starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan and James Caan, but whose only performance of any resonance was by the then-unknown Gwyneth Paltrow.) Then I was reminded of Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER, and the best scene in the movie where he was working the Deli counter in-between wrestling gigs. Had Rourke managed to sell me on his estrangement from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) as well, then I would have bought the whole package and even forgiven the SOPRANOS-esque ending, but I didn't buy it. THE WRESTLER was grittier movie-making, but also softer in matters of the heart.
Next I was thinking about his father Lloyd Bridges, who gave the best turn in the soapy-but-enjoyable COUSINS, who could navigate between drama and tomfoolery effortlessly, but who was never a truly convincing dramatic actor.
Finally, I was reminded of THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR, a criminally-neglected movie co-starring Kim Basinger, who phoned-in her performance while Jeff Bridges delivered one of the worst fathers ever seen on the screen with devastating precision.
Jeff Bridges has arrived at a role that any actor would have done well with in CRAZY HEART, but few could have done better with it. Bridges makes himself a mess but not at the expense of giving an immaculate performance. Playing an alcoholic, a skirt chaser and a user, he never pushes his character into an unforgiveable act: Bridges is not confessing anything to us as a man, but is exploring everything there is to confess about his character.
The difference between what Rourke did in THE WRESTLER and what Bridges does here is that Rourke was confessing as an actor as well as performing as his character; Bridges is simply more artful and less guilt-ridden than Rourke.
This is nowhere more evident than in his scenes with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who has never looked lovelier on the big screen. Compare this with Marisa Tomei's downward turn in THE WRESTLER, unglamorous and emotionally unavailable for Rourke. Here, the give-and-take between Bridges and Gyllenhaal is priceless: she uses her face like Ruby Keeler in 42nd STREET, all doe eyed and worshipful.
Even though her son is used like the one in KRAMER VS. KRAMER; to show us Bridges' worth, then to make us question his value; Bridges is every bit as good with this boy as Hoffman was with his boy in that movie. The biscuit scene between the two of them is a small gem.
When Robert Duvall parachutes in halfway through, we are less reminded of his fine work in TENDER MERCIES than we are of how masterfully Bridges has navigated the rough waters of his character so far in CRAZY HEART. When Colin Farrell strolls in a bit later, again we see how Farrell is struggling to appear to be a rising country star while Bridges is completely believable as a fading country giant.
The rehabilitation scenes are sparsely written and underplayed. Compare this with the clinical humiliations of THE WRESTLER, showing Rourke trolling for drugs, blacking out, letting himself get mutilated in the ring, then being given a ROCKY-esque shot at a second chance. THE WRESTLER was a character study trying to be a movie, whereas CRAZY HEART manages to be both at the same time.
As Bad Blake, Bridges knows that he's to blame for his desperate situation, but he remembers everybody's name, he sings the songs that he's asked to sing in concert, he whips the bands he's playing with into shape. Even when Bridges leaves to vomit in the middle of a dedication song he does so without malice and escapes blame because; shucks; a man's gotta hurl when a man's gotta hurl, y'all.
Is the music equal to Bridge's performance? No, but it ain't bad. The title song does not capture the story that's been told, but that captures just how good a performance Bridges' Bad Blake is. And Bridges' stature as an actor is never greater than in the epilogue, when he ties it all together with generosity and that marvelously light touch of his. Bridges gets the girl without getting the girl, if you get my drift.
As impressed as I was with Meryl Streep in JULIE & JULIA, the performance of 2009 is Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART. Hell, yes!
I might have a shot of getting in print with Exterminating Angel Press, so please wish me luck!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad