Crazy Heart

Deb 6 Me 7

It’s always exciting to see yourself on screen. I think that is one of the attractions of movies. An appeal of good filmmaking is that you can find yourself in one of the roles or identifying with a theme in a film. Empathy.

I was not excited about seeing Crazy Heart. I’m not into country music and the previews weren’t particularly interesting. But Jeff Bridges looks like he would be worth hanging with and usually picks good roles, and I heard Robert Duvall was in it, so those were points in it’s favor. T-Bone Burnett has been involved with several quality projects, and what the hell, it’s not supposed to have any violence and it’s two only hours.

So from the get-go it’s pretty much the stereotype western music story of hick bars and broke dick motels, trudging along from one humiliating gig to another. But most of the instruments appear to be in actual sync with the music we’re listening to, there’s a few errors in the beginning of the movie but very convincing playing the rest of the way through. This kind of thing is important to me. It probably shouldn’t be, but it is. Story is what film is all about in my book, and things like out-of-sync musicians and 1975 cars in a 1972 setting distract me from the story and reduce the overall credibility of the film. This one had no disturbing incongruities.

The film follows the Jeff Bridges character through the southwest where he meets musicians, fans and reporters along the way. He is a good-natured guy and drinks quite a bit, he has made a commitment to intoxication and is sticking with it. I liked the guy; there were a lot of scenes that I felt were portraits of me back in the day. Although I never set foot on stage, the wandering around and drinking a little more than possible struck a familiar note with me. I’ve actually peuked in some of the same towns mentioned in the movie. Good times.

The film inspires good conversation about relationships. Man and woman, man and child, man to man, man to his past, present and future, a man and his bottle. The film seems to be an earnest, credible tale and is told with a minimum of story holes. Deb found it to be predictable; I saw things coming that didn’t arrive so my predictions were in vain. It’s beautifully shot, which helps romanticize his boozing and I liked the directing. There actors were involved even when in the background. It has a Hollywood feel to it, I figure it’s going after a mainstream audience.

Deb found it predictable and doesn’t like watching alcoholics for entertainment. She gave it a 6.

I felt like it was almost autobiographical and rated it a bit higher, a 7.