Crazy Heart

I finally got to knock this one off my list. And I'm really glad I finally got to it. It's always fun to watch movies after they've received their awards and accolades and then assess them for myself. The main hype around this movie was the acting of Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, a washed-up, alcoholic country singer. Bridges earned his first Academy Award, and it was very well deserved.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I almost always like, plays a reporter that Bad meets in Santa Fe. She asks him for an interview and movie magic ensues. Their romance seemed just a little strange to me. He easily has 20 years on her, if not more. And their chemistry, while apparent and unforced, just bothered me a little. Only a little though. She has a son named Buddy, apparently she's a fan of Elf, played by a cute little kid named Jack Nation. Which, by the way, is an awesome and sure-fire movie star name. Jack Nation. Yeah, I can see that name in lights. I hope it's not a weird stage-mom concoction.

You know, I was going to do a tidy little plot synopsis as a part of this review. But I don't think I will now. Because frankly it's unimportant. The movie was satisfyingly undeveloped. The plot was simple, the conflict straightforward. It was pretty much just about Bad. It starts off with him performing a show in a bowling alley piss-ass-drunk, even leaving the stage to vomit in a garbage can outside. You can tell he's unsatisfied. You can tell that he's broken. You can tell that he has a lot of skeletons in his closet, a lot of baggage. But you can still tell that he's hopeful. He loves his music. And he really loves to perform. You can just tell. A bit later in the movie he walks into a bar in Santa Fe where he's playing to find a piano player who's going to be part of his backing band for the night's show just ripping on the keys. The guy's really good. And Bad acknowledges him, and his talent, and says that it's going to be really nice to play with a talented pianist again. And he does it all with a big, sincere smile on his face. Then he goes back to his motel room and gets drunk. Alone. It's that kind of dichotomy that makes Bridges' character so intriguing. The broken alcoholic juxtaposed with the enthusiastic musician.

Very little is said about his past. Besides a couple jokes about his 5 ex-wives and the mention that he has a son that he's never met. But not of that matters. Bridges takes over the screen in every frame. Everything going on plot-wise simply serves to provide a platform for Bridges' performance.

Aside from Bridges, the best part of the movie was easily the music, written primarily by T Bone Burnett, known for his work with artists like Counting Crows, Tony Bennett and Allison Krauss and Robert Plant and for soundtrack contributions to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line, and Ryan Bingham, a bull-rider turned Americana singer/songwriter. Bridges sings and plays guitar and so does, wait for it, Colin Farrell. (Yes, that Colin Farrell! He even sings and speaks with a country accent. Very convincingly too. I was so surprised. Farrell has always interested me, his rise and fall as one of Hollywood's baddest bad boys. And then he stunned me with his brilliant performance in In Bruges, one of my top 10 favorite films to date. While this role isn't one of his best acting endeavors, it is really good. Especially considering that he has one of the heaviest Irish dock-worker accents I've ever heard.) Every song seems to come genuinely from Bad's soul. And Bridges plays a huge role in that. He's a great singer and I'd honestly listen to anything he put out there. Full of regret and dissatisfaction, his songs epitomize the character. Frankly, the movie wouldn't be half as good without the music. And I don't even like country music. I would venture to say that I hate country music. I've always liked bluegrass and folk, just not country. It seems to be generally uninspired, ignorant, and annoying. If someone try's to tell me that that "Big Green Tractor" song is any good I swear I'm going to go postal. But this brand of country is different. It's about something more. It's honest. It's genuine. The way music should be. Good music should speak to you. And if I'm to be honest, if "Big Green Tractor" speaks to you, I'll never speak to you again.

Remember Me

Yeah yeah, I'm the worst blogger ever. I just haven't seen any movies in awhile. You'll live. And yeah, yeah. I saw a Robert Pattinson movie. Don't judge me. Oh, and spoilers abound so watch yourself. When I saw the previews for this movie a couple months ago, I thought it looked good. And I wasn't that worried about seeing a movie with a Twilight actor in it. Then I tried to watch New Moon yesterday. Which was bad. The acting in that one was so rough that I couldn't make it through. So I was a little wary of the potential bad acting. But this movie was really good. I really, really enjoyed it. Girls kept telling me this movie was "Like amazing!" And that's usually code for, "I'm not going to like this." But I did. I really did. Robert Pattinson was very good. And Emile de Ravin, Claire from Lost, is also good. Despite her pretty bad American accent. The rest of the cast also plays their parts very well. Chris Cooper, October Sky, Breach, The Patriot, and a slew of other movies I really like, plays Claire's dad, a Sgt. in the NYPD. And Pierce Brosnan, James Bond, Mamma Mia, Mrs. Doubtfire, plays Pattinson's dad. An uptight lawyer with mixed up priorities. He does this great kinda "used to be poor Brooklyn guy trying to be uppercrust" accent.

Pattinson plays Pattinson. Brooding and angsty, he seems really comfortable as this character and may face typecasting for much of his career. He has no direction in life. He doesn't work, he doesn't go to school, but he does "audit" classes. Which means he attends and learns without being graded or paying for the classes. It's kind of the Good Will Hunting approach but he just goes into the classes instead of just reading in the library. He and his roommate, Aiden, played by Tate Ellington who plays a very traditional comic relief role with brilliance, get into a fight and are arrested by Chris Cooper after Pattinson mouths off to him. Aiden, as a dare, convinces Pattinson to ask Claire out on a date to get back at Cooper for being a dick. Words of wisdom, don't date girls as a dare. It never works out properly. They fall in love, as they often do in movies. Claire's dad finds out about their relationship and Pattinson finally confesses to Claire that their relationship started on a dare. She get's upset and storms out. I don't know how I feel about that response. I mean, I understand that he wasn't really honest with her, but whatever. Their relationship is really now. Why does it matter why he approached her in the first place? Whatever. Girls are tricky.

One of the more interesting story lines involves Pattinson's family. His brother committed suicide on his 22nd birthday and it tore his family apart. He has a little sister, Caroline, played very well by Ruby Jerins, a very cute little girl with a lot of potential as an actress, who thinks that Pattinson hung the moon. Her artistic talent makes her something of an outcast among the "pretty" girls in her class. Pattinson tries his best to support her, but there's only so much he can do. Their father, divorced from their mother, is simply a check to them. He values his work over everything else and Pattinson really resents him for it. The conflict really comes to a head when Brosnan misses Caroline's art show. Pattinson storms into his office and really lays into him. They almost come to blows before they're stopped by others in the room.

The movie's set in 2001, in New York. You know this from the very beginning. And I thought right away, 9/11 is going to be related somehow. I didn't know how though. After Caroline is bullied to the point of breakdown by the "pretty" girls, Brosnan starts to come around. Pattinson flips out one morning after walking Caroline to school and destroys some school property and is arrested for the second time this movie. After bailing him out of jail, Brosnan gets a fire under him and begins to stand up for his family. Pattinson agrees to meet Brosnan at his office to go over some information about his lawsuit.

Then the movie gets interesting. Pattinson and Claire had just started to rekindle their relationship, and his family situation was finally turning out well. Pattinson is early to his dad's office and as he stands at the window of the office, the camera pans out and reveals that he is in Tower One of the World Trade Center. And everyone in the theater thinks a collective, "Shit! No! C'mon! Really?" The screen goes black and cuts to scenes of the other characters, ash starting to fall around them, just cry and look up into the sky. It's powerful. Like really moving.

I guess I knew that this might be a 9/11 movie. But I didn't really know.

I don't know if it's too soon for a 9/11 movie. I don't think so. It's been almost 10 years. Which is crazy to think of. It's crazy to remember where you were. 6th grade, outside of Mrs. Ault's science class. I remember not knowing exactly what the World Trade Center was. I remember thinking some drunk guy got into his twin engine Piper Cub and ran into an apartment high rise. I wasn't prepared. No one was. This movie took an interesting angle though. It got us invested in the characters, and then shocked us with the tragedy. Which is exactly what happened to all of us. There were regular people in those towers. With regular lives. It was really personal. And just like September 9 years ago, we were initially all too shocked to be upset. And that's how it was with this movie. I was too shocked to be sad. This one's good. As long as you can get past "Robert is Boverred" and Claire's accent, you'll really enjoy it.