Many close-ups in Scott Cooper's touching "Crazy Heart" use a simple black background. Cooper moves us in past the tired, dimly lit America until the only relevant details are on the faces of the film's Oscar-worthy leads.
A great country song can do that — strip away everything but that one tender moment, make it simple and universal, make it human.
We can believe that such a song would come from Bad Blake, played by Jeff Bridges, an aging country western singer who now plays his once-famous songs to small crowds of fans in bowling alleys and old bars, using his cigarette to light his next cigarette and drinking beyond his capacity to adequately perform.
We wonder if the alcoholism was a response to his decline or an instigator. Deep down, we sense the two were bound.
Blake sees the country from his '78 Suburban, through his trademark aviators and out from under his formal cowboy hat. He seems to have found himself in a perpetual circuit of the Southwest, from San Antonio to Phoenix, or at least all the little villages in between.
He's in fleeting phone contact with his patient manager, played by James Keane, who tells him the only way back to the big time is to write some new material, but Bad hasn't written a song in three years. He says the old stuff has treated him too well, but we know better.
We learn of Bad's broken friendship with a young-gun guitar player who used to tour with him, Tommy Sweet, played by Colin Farrell. Tommy is now a superstar, but he hasn't forgotten who taught him everything he knows.
He offers Bad good money to write songs for him and perform as his warm-up, but Bad refuses. He'll make it back on his own, thank you very much.
But Bad's real break comes in the form of a thirtysomething reporter, Jean Craddock, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who requests to interview him and falls cautiously, perhaps even reluctantly, under his spell.
Bad's been divorced four times. Jean knows. She's also keenly aware of his drinking, but when she's around, he cleans up a bit.
She has a son, Buddy, played by Jack Nation, whom Bad cares for deeply, and when she asks Bad not to drink in front of him, he throws down the rest of his glass and that's that. But the question remains, does he care enough for Jean and Buddy to sober up for good, or is that bottle of McClure's Whiskey too much a part of him and his past to put away?
"Crazy Heart" is a modest movie with a performance at its core that is profound in its modesty. This is the kind of character that Jeff Bridges can do better than anybody. There is not a moment of "acting" here. He is a genuine everyman, just as he says of any great country song: You're always sure you've heard it before.
rollanschott@dailynebraskan.com
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