Crazy Heart [Blu-ray]

Crazy Heart [Blu-ray] [2009]
Directed by Scott Cooper

Price:

£14.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a career filled with unforced, naturalistic performances, Jeff Bridges gives one of his finest in Crazy Heart. His oft-married, booze-soaked troubadour Bad Blake has just rolled into Santa Fe when he meets Maggie Gyllenhaal's journalist Jean. "Where do all the songs come from?" she asks during their initial encounter. "Life, unfortunately", he sighs. Against Jean's better judgment, her fling with Blake blooms into a full-fledged relationship. Between gigs, Blake hangs out with the divorcée and her 4-year-old son, with whom he establishes an instant rapport, possibly because the musician is just an overgrown kid himself (and also because he hasn't seen his own boy in years). While Blake plays juke joints, his protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell, cast against type to fine effect), plays stadiums, but just when director Scott Cooper's debut seems to be going down the same path as A Star Is Born, Sweet offers his mentor an opportunity that could revive his reputation--at the expense of his still-healthy ego. Between Jean and Tommy, things start looking up for Blake until a critical error puts his stab at redemption in jeopardy. Once Robert Duvall enters the scene as Blake's favorite bartender, it's clear that Cooper has Tender Mercies in his sights, but Crazy Heart, which features music by T-Bone Burnett and rough-hewn singing by its Golden Globe-winning star, plays more like a sincere cover version than a strikingly original composition. Still, like Duvall's in Tender Mercies, Bridges's performance is Oscar-worthy. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Synopsis
A worn-down country singer and a burgeoning journalist form an unusual bond in this drama adapted from the novel by Thomas Cobb. His spirit broken by multiple failed marriages, too much time on the road, and too many nights with the bottle, Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) had started to feel like he was headed down the path of no return. When probing young writer Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) digs deep enough to unearth the broken man behind the legend, however, Bad realizes that redemption may not be such a long shot after all. Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell co-star.

Buy & read user review