Crazy Heart is a story not uncommon on the big screen these days. A once wildly popular and successful musician has lost their way and their talent, but found the bottle, some oddly shaped dry leaves and one or two pills. Unexpectedly, they're offered a chance at redemption.
So, the story is a little samey.
Casting and performance? Well I have to say that Jeff does a good job. It's not the most amazing transformation I've ever witnessed on screen, but it's strong enough that with his body of work, the awards voters will probably recognise him for Best Actor in most cases.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is pretty good weaving her usual amount of charm and quirkiness into the role of a solo mother slash reporter who finds herself falling for our fallen musician.
[side note - when falling for someone who has or is fallen, does one have to crawl or can one stand upright until that point where they reach the first fallen person and then fall down to their level?]
Colin Farrell also does a fine job as the young musician who is flavour of the week and also Jeff's former protégé.
The thing that I was most intrigued about was the music. We have, after all, the story of a country and western artist who rules the charts and airwaves and after the Golden Globe win for best soundtrack, I hoped that the music would wow me.
T-Bone Burnett (the whitest man ever to call himself T-Bone) did a fairly sub-par job in my humble, if classically trained, opinion. The music failed to draw me in or move me in any way. I'm a big fan of acoustic guitar ballads but this just didn't do it for me lyrically or melodically.
All in all this is a fine, inoffensive film, but a bit of a let down I thought.
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I'll give it 3 thumbs up
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