Crazy Heart Movie Review

I haven't watched the Golden Globes yet, but I can see why Jeff Bridges was nominated as Best Actor for Crazy Heart.

Everything about him, from his years-of-smoking cough, to his whiskey addled voice and the way he drawls--he embodies the perfect portrayal of the once famous, still talented, burnt-out country star he plays. It's a bit eerie how much he looks like a mix between Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard; that's precisely the kind of heartfelt, bad living cowboy crooner he's playing.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I've never been a fan of, was fantastic in the role of a free spirited, passionate woman tamed by her protectiveness for her son and let free by her love for Bridges' Blake. She is the portrait of a woman who is amazed and feeling too lucky to be loved by Blake, because her bones are telling her he's bound to hurt her. Love her he does...whole-heartedly, in a way that the audience knows is special. Hurt her, he does as well.

This is a story about the redemption and comeback of a talented has-been and Bridges plays it like a pro. Making the film that much richer is Robert Duvall playing Blake's friend and only permanent tie to the world. Any film with Duvall playing a cowboy or western cohort, is made richer by his presence.

This film is also a love song about country music and the west, as the camera lingers on scenes of blue sky, big white storm clouds, wheat and red canyon rock. "Crazy Heart" isn't bloated or too big, just on point enough with big actors who play it accurately and quietly, in a film about a man's crazy heart and the love that inspires his return to life and notoriety.

"Revolution" by Miranda Lambert

When I'd first read previews of Miranda Lambert's latest album release "Revolution," I wasn't sure this "softer, more feminine, more well-rounded" Lambert was one I was going to like. Soft? From the woman who blazed into Nashville with the Steve Earle sound-alike-tune of Kerosene; that song where she growls "light 'em up and watch them burn." It was this very harshness and brashness of the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that I liked.

And by the way, just so you're clear, I am so enamored of Lambert's strong voice, style and boldness that if she were my guy's crazy ex-girlfriend, I'd want to knock a beer down with her, lean over and kiss her, all the while being terrified of her vengeance. Make no mistake, when it comes to Lambert, I'm an unabashed groupie.

The real shocker of "Revolution" is that her softer, more wistful songs of which there are a good handful on the album, don't detract from that wild, brazen, fun-loving blonde we've come to admire and fear. Her sweeter, poignant songs enhance her personality as if to show that within a lioness lies a lamb and the heart of the lamb is as fierce as a lioness.

The same strength of character a person needs to make country music on traditional and pop-driven Music Row all while singing about burning tradition to the ground is repeated in songs like "Love Song" and "Makin' Plans." Are these softer? Undoubtedly. Amongst beautiful melodies Lambert knows herself well enough that she can sing about that strength of her relationship...."I'm not easy to understand/ but you know me like the back of your hand/ I'm your girl and you're my man." And in "Love Song" where she knows that sometimes the truest signs of love is when her man knows when to hold her when she's crying and she knows when you love a man, sometimes all he needs is some space.

Her brilliance for wordplay doesn't falter especially on her tune "The House That Built Me." Returning to a childhood home with a shattered sense of self, she revels in finding who she is; houses are built, but this song emphasizes how sometimes, a home can build a person.

Okay. Now that we've established her soft side isn't sickening, but strong in its vulnerability, I must return to what Lambert does best-singing rollicking songs to the gut. In her rougher-hewed album opener, "White Liar" she adds a twist to the story. Yes, he's a white liar and she doesn't understand. But Miranda, fed up with the lies of a bad liar let's him know she's vindictively been lying too.

When "Only Prettier" starts with a hard pounding guitar, thrashing drums and a fearsome scream--you know she's having fun when she's telling "high life people" she's just like them, only prettier (and cooler). She gives this same strict crowd a good one-two when she reminds them in "Heart Like Mine" that if Jesus could calm storms and speak of eternal forgiveness, He would be the perfect person to understand a rough heart like hers. Yes He would, and we do too.

Buy her album, turn it on, listen through, and you'll come to love Miranda more for her personal revolution.