Crazy HeartIn 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 judgement, 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 favourite 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
Walk The LineCharting the life stories of both legendary musician Johnny Cash and singer June Carter,
Walk The Line has proven to be among the most popular music biopics of all time. And with good reason.
Spearheaded by two superb performances (which we’ll come to shortly), the film’s main focus is on Cash himself, from his childhood, early successes, eventual troubles through to the legendary concert of Folsom Prison. His journey also takes in drug problems, the tragedy that haunted him and bumpy relationships with the women in his life. Throughout, of course, there’s Cash’s enviable body of musical work, which not only helps provide markers for his story, but makes for an excellent soundtrack to the movie as a whole.
As a film, Walk The Line is resolutely formulaic, with a structure that’ll be familiar to anyone who regularly watches biopics of this ilk. What really helps this one stand tall though are Joaquin Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon. Pheonix is utterly compelling in the lead role, while Witherspoon is back on the form she displayed back in the days of Election.
James Mangold’s direction is fine and uncluttered, and while his film clearly chooses which elements of Cash’s life to focus on (there’s certainly far more to know than you get in the two and a quarter hours here), it works extremely well as an entry point into the life story of a great musician. Even the casual viewer will get a lot from Walk The Line, and it may even compel them to expand their CD collection off the back of it.--Simon Brew
Crazy Heart Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges delivers the performance of a lifetime in
Crazy Heart, the powerful story of a country music star's rocky road to redemption. Bridges stars as Bad Blake, a boozy, broken-down singer who reaches for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the music. But will Bad's hard-livin' ways and crazy heart cost him his last chance at a comeback?
Offers English audio description and Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles.
Walk The LineSinger. Rebel. Outlaw. Hero. With his driving freight-train chords, steel-eyed intensity and a voice as dark as the night, the legendary "Man in Black" revolutionised music and forged his legacy as a genuine American icon. Golden Globe winners Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon star (and sing) as Johnny Cash and June Carter in this inspiring true story of one man's unwavering devotion to his sound, his message and the greatest love of his life.