I GO TO THE MOVIES!!
On this glorious Friday, Katherine was struck with a moment of spontaneity and whisked the two of us off to The Angelika to see "Crazy Heart". With all the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges' performance in the movie, not to mention Maggie Gyllenhaal scoring a Oscar nomination for it, I just had to dish out the $12.50 to go see this movie. Gladly I can say that it was money well invested.
"Crazy Heart" is the story of Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) an alcoholic country singer whose time is just about up. While touring small bars and clubs in the southwest he meets a young journalist, Jane Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who he can't help but be attracted to. But is this enough to convince Blake to change his behavior?
(Not really a spoiler, If you watch a trailer for the movie you'll get the same idea about the movie)
As the first film directed by Scott Cooper you have to give him credit for doing such a great job on his first try. The colors and style of shooting of the movie definitely make you think it was done by someone with more experience, that or he hired a really good cinematographer. The scenery and locations used also helped give the movie an appropriate representation of small towns in the southwest. Besides that there wasn't to much spectacular about the visuals in the movie which could be why it, as a movie, wasn't nominated for any awards.
The acting on the other hand really surprised me. Bridges had a very nice performance as Bad Blake, one that nearly moved you to tears at times. He portrayed a chain smoking, alcoholic country singer so well you'd swear that we was just being himself. Not to mention the man can sing, that is if that was actually his voice we heard singing (I didn't stay long enough after the movie ended to find out). I'm not a big fan of country, outside of T-Swift and Carrie Underwood but the writer of the songs he sings in the movie is pretty talented. But the person that really caught my attention in the movie was Ms. Gyllenhaal as Jane Craddock. Going in I was being very critical every time she showed up on the screen, I wanted to know what the Academy saw in her that the critics and screen actors guild didn't. I'll have you all know that I found it. Gyllenhaal's performance was very believable and like her co-star tugged at some of your heart strings. SPOILER ALERT! The scene where she's leaving Blake, the anger and emotion flowing out of her is great. I wanted to shout out in the theater for her to stay but at the same time you want her to leave. It was great. SPOILER OVER! I feel like the Academy made a good choice giving her the nomination. While I don't think she'll win, she could be the one to watch, because none of the other nominees are really competition for the front runner Mo'Nique. While we're talking about Oscar nomination, "Crazy Heart (The Weary Kind)" is a good song. I totes understand why it is snatching up all the awards. As I stated before I'm not a big country fan but the lyrics in that song are powerful and if I wasn't such an avid fan of "The Princess and The Frog" I would definitely want it to win.
Looks like there might be three awards going home with "Crazy Heart" come Oscar night.
I give Scott Cooper's "Crazy Heart" a B.
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