Drinking whiskey, long drives to shit gigs, sneaking out of hotel rooms in the morning. Ah the road. What a wonderful part of being an entertainer. Hoping for free drinks and a comped meal to take back to the motel. Debating with yourself about life choices. Am I living a dream of freedom from a boring life? Or have I failed and become a broken down version of myself that wasn’t even real to begin with? When you’re successful it’s called being an eccentric artist, when you’ve failed it’s a big hot bowl of all your faults that you’ve got to jam down your rotten yap hole every day. That’s what Bad Blake shows us, or at least tries too.
Drinking whiskey, long drives to shit gigs, sneaking out of hotel rooms in the morning. Ah the road. What a wonderful part of being an entertainer. Hoping for free drinks and a comped meal to take back to the motel. Debating with yourself about life choices. Am I living a dream of freedom from a boring life? Or have I failed and become a broken down version of myself that wasn’t even real to begin with? When you’re successful it’s called being an eccentric artist, when you’ve failed it’s a big hot bowl of all your faults that you’ve got to jam down your rotten yap hole every day. That’s what Bad Blake shows us, or at least tries too.
Crazy Heart is the story of country music singer Bad Blake. It starts out as Blake is going from hell gig to hell gig, broke and beaten with a drinking problem to boot. We see his self-destructive side and then his last chance at redemption comes in the form of Maggie Gyllenhaal as a reporter. Gyllenhaal does a good job of being intrigued and smitten with Blake and this gives him a reason to try to improve his condition. Blake tries to rewrite the parenting of his own child with Gyllenhaal’s 4 year old. Robert Duvall plays Blake’s buddy and conscience.
I was hoping for tears too strong to be held back to roll down my face. But this film missed the mark a little. I mean overall it’s a good movie, but I was expecting more. Instead of a gut punch that left me needing a week to recover, I got a light slap on the face.
Ok, Jeff Bridges is great. He plays this guy with depth and complex reality. I’m sure I met Bad Blake somewhere in a bar after a gig. Like when I was a young road comic living in Chicago and did a string of one-nighters in bowling alleys in down state Illinois. He played after me and before the karaoke DJ. That’s how believable Bridges is as this fictional guy. That’s part of the problem with the film: I wanted more. And having an Irish heartthrob as a country music star took me out of it like dog licking your foot when you are trying to get it on with a waitress/single mom. I like Colin Farrell but he is not believable as a country music star and this hurt the film. America is always “amazed” that an actor from the UK can sound so American. It’s like how dumb we can get when we hear an English accent and think, “Wow, he sounds smart.” Or how if someone makes an period film with English accents and gowns then the Academy gives it a nomination on the spot. You know who can do really good American accents? Actors from AMERICA!
In general I think this is a good film, but too many scenes miss the mark and didn’t give me the harsh reality that I already know. It was like Hollywood went to New Mexico to play hard life country singer. And knowing Duvall was a producer was confusing. After all, he was a similar guy in Mac Sledge with Tender Mercies in 1983.
So I think you should still see this film and then Netflix Tender Mercies and you’ll see what I mean. And then PALM STRIKE Hollywood for casting an Irish actor to play a country music singer.
—Graham Elwood
