Crazy Heart

Crazy Heart stars Jeff Bridges as has been country western singer, Bad Blake. He's playing dives and battling booze. Booze is winning. The story takes viewers down some familiar paths, really well worn paths and doesn't do anything particularly daring or new. As expected Bad has some one night stands so we can see he's a chick magnet, though a worn down chick magnet, before he meets the woman who'll change him or inspire change in him. Conveniently, this character is a reporter for a small paper. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the single mom smiling beauty. She's got charm and looks, but the writer forgot to give her much of a life. At first it seemed that she must be a total newcomer as a reporter since she had her uncle request the interview. Later it seems she might be more established. Sadly, the film doesn't bother to care about her life much beyond how it can serve as a plot device to spur Bad through the required development.

As I watched, I kept wanting to like the film more. The music was good and Bridges was colorful, but we've all seen a lot of drama about a characters who're drunks or formerly famous or both. We know what's required, what's involved. We've also known people who've gone through the experience. Crazy Heart disappoints because it gives so little. It doesn't go down all the soul search or painful alleys that alcoholism pulls people into. The prime example of this is the sequence of scenes at the substance abuse center. We see the familiar circle with people standing and saying, "I'm Bad and I'm an alcoholic." There's a couple minutes of that and then the film cuts to Bad's friend picking him up from the center making it seem like it's a walk in the park to go to one.

Also, since the love interest Jean wasn't fully developed, we never learned what she liked about him and she never had to examine or acknowledge the few flaws she had.