Casual cinemagoers may not have been especially familiar with the name of Stephen Bruton, to whom this Oscarwinning movie was dedicated. Country fans, however, will recognise him as one of the form’s great unsung heroes, not least for his collaborations with Kris Kristofferson stretching back over four decades.
Crazy Heart was Bruton’s last major work before his death from cancer last year, penning most of the film’s original songs in tandem with T-Bone Burnett, and sung on screen with gusto by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell. As washed-up alcoholic country outlaw Bad Blake, Bridges gives the performance of his career; a nuanced reading of a troubled soul banished to the fringes of the industry whose life is turned around by a sympathetic journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
If the plot occasionally veers towards cliché, the leads are always on hand to keep it on an even keel, utterly convincing throughout. Bridges’ gruff voice has previously been heard on an album of his own (and via a slick cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire over the opening titles to the political drama The Contender), but the true musical revelation is Farrell’s authentic down-home twang, not a million miles away from Dwight Yoakam.
