Review of Crazy Heart (2009) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

This is a drama film with obviously a heavy emphasis on music, more specifically country music and it features themes including reconciliation, personal identity, loneliness and of course country music. It is very much a character focussed drama. The main character, Bad (who is very hesitant to reveal his real name, I should note), is depicted from early on as quite a disillusioned person. We learn slowly about his history, via the love interest, Jean the journalist. Given his fame and adoration, its surprising to see that he lives a relatively modest life, keeping himself to himself most of the time. I found it hard to fully follow what Bad said at times, as his voice sounded quite mumbly - perhaps its (partly) because of his thick US accent. I often found myself tinkering with the volume to try and improve things, only to find a new scene starting with music playing and the music was too loud, so I'd turn it down, only to find myself, yet again, a bit unclear of the dialogue when it cut to a quieter scene, which is quite frustrating!. Whether thats anything to do with me watching it via my laptop, as I purchased it via Google Play, or not, I don't know but it was quite distracting and so I felt I better mention it.

The plot is pretty slow paced, infact I'm not sure if it was very clear quite what the plot was, certainly direction wise, at all. I found it (personally) a pretty easy watch, as I'm relatively keen on contemporary country music and I quite enjoyed the songs Bad performs (I believe the actor, Jeff Bridges, performs himself during the film, so its not a case of lip syncing or dubbing, which impressed me - some of the lyrics are relatively poignant) plus I don't mind a decent film centering on character development but this may not suit all, as some may find this a bit slow and meandering. I think its fair to say that this is quite a, what you might call, reflective film - with various people, mostly other musicians, looking back at things in the music industry and in their individual lives and perhaps wondering what may have been. It may seem a bit indulgent to some but I thought it was somewhat philosophical and I found it a pleasant enough watch regardlress.

Content wise, this film contains some strong language plus a scene involving a crash in which a character is left with injuries, part bloody ones although nothing especially graphic is shown. Bad is depicted as drinking and being inebriated at times and also people are seen smoking, which may not be something you'd want younger teenagers to see, if you think they may be influenced by such things but there are no other drug related references or scenes and no graphic sexual content either, although some mild nudity. Also I wouldn't say that drinking and smoking is glamourised as such either, the down sides to such over indulgences being made fairly clear. Regardless, due to this, the film carries a 15 rating here in the UK. The 15 rating slightly surprised me as I would have thought it would be ok with a 12a rating, for the language, given there isn't a great amount of violence but I suppose the higher rating is, if partly, due to the amount of smoking and alcohol taking depicted.

The film contains a definite bittersweet feel to it, particularly towards the end as certain discoveries are made, although I won't go in to any details so as not to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it, of course. I thought this was a well made film which is relatively thoughtful.

Yes I'd recommend it overall, as long as you don't mind possibly relying on using the subtitles on ocassion and as long as you don't mind character based dramas, as this is just about one of the better ones. It may seem a little bland and it doesn't feature any big visual effects or anything but the main performance by Jeff Bridges is a solid one and I liked the music featured throughout and found it to be a good watch, if a rather sobering one.