I’m a sucker for movies about country singers. Despite the fact that listening to country music makes my ears bleed, I never pass up on a good country drama. The genre traditionally leans toward biopics (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Sweet Dreams, Pure Country, Walk the Line) and Crazy Heart is no exception.
Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed up Country/Blues musician who has been relegated to performing in bowling alleys and other undignified venues. Blake is a raging alcoholic who stumbles off the stage mid-performance to go puke, then returns to finish a set. He drives his pick-up from town to town and beds middle age women who still remember him from his golden days.
He tersely thrusts his show notes to whatever band he happens to be playing with that night, and can’t be bothered to rehearse. It’s a gamble as to whether he will even show up on a given night, and to what condition he’ll be in.
To make matters worse, his former protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), has become a country music superstar, and regularly plays to packed stadiums. There is clearly some bad blood between the two, because anytime Sweet’s name is brought up, Blake bristles.
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