Oscars likely for 'Crazy Heart'

CRAZY HEART

3 stars

Rated R

One of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood is finally getting the recognition he deserves. After winning awards for best actor last weekend at the Critics Choice and Golden Globes, four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges (“The Contender,” “Starman,” “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and “The Last Picture Show”) is the odds-on favorite to finally take home the golden statuette.

In “Crazy Heart,” Bridges stars as Bad Blake, a grizzled, bourbon-guzzling, country music singer. This legendary songwriting guitarist with a tenor voice is the spitting image of Kris Kristofferson. At age 57, he drinks and smokes too much and needs to lose 25 pounds. He travels around the Southwest in Old Betsy, a battered 1978 Suburban Silverado, and plays one-night gigs in bowling alleys, piano bars and honky-tonk saloons with pickup bands and local piano players.

He has a blue-collar work ethic. “I play drunk, sick, divorced and on the run. I never missed a show in my life,” says Bad. His moniker is on the back of his guitar strap so the group playing behind him will never forget the once-famous star attraction warbling into the microphone.

Bad has been unlucky in love, having married and divorced four times. Things appear to change for the better when he is interviewed by Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal from “The Dark Knight” and “Secretary”), an attractive single mother who has a poor track record with men. They share a love of music and the hard knocks of life. They have a romantic fling. Bad spends time with Jean and her cute-as-a-button, 4-year-old toddler, Buddy (Jack Nation), even making them his world-famous biscuits.

This character portrait of a tarnished man full of regrets struggling down the road of redemption is based on the 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb. It marks the astounding filmmaking debut of writer-director Scott Cooper, a former child actor. Cooper acknowledges that Bad’s dramatic character arc mirrors the life of Merle Haggard. He also indicates that Bad could have been the fifth Highwayman, joining Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kristofferson.

Bridges is phenomenal in the signature role, much like last year’s attention-grabbing performance by Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler.” Bridges has become an audience favorite with a casual, carefree attitude, a sly charm and a perpetual grin. The son of TV star Lloyd Bridges (“Sea Hunt”) is usually cast as the unpredictable rascal. Bad is a perfect complement to Bill Django (“The Men Who Stare at Goats”), Charles Howard (“Seabiscuit”), The Dude (“The Big Lebowski”), Jack Baker (“The Fabulous Baker Boys”), Preston Tucker (“Tucker: The Man and his Dream” ) and Starman (“Starman”).

Besides the mesmerizingly marvelous lead turn, another strength of this movie is the terrific guitar-heavy country music score by the late Stephen Bruton and T Bone Burnett (“Walk the Line,” “Cold Mountain” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”). These songs are so good you will be tempted to buy the CD soundtrack so you can listen to them repeatedly. The movie’s theme song, “The Weary Kind” (lyrics by Ryan Bingham), received the top prize for best song in a motion picture last weekend at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards. It should easily win the Oscar.

The movie is dedicated to the memory of Bruton, who died last May of throat cancer at boyhood friend Burnett’s home. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffet, Jennings and Nelson.

The movie was shot primarily in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M. The supporting cast includes Colin Farrell (“Minority Report”) and Robert Duvall (“Tender Mercies”). Now playing at the Glenwood Arts, AMC Studio 30 and the Tivoli in Westport.

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES

2 and a half stars

Rated PG

Brendan Fraser (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”) and Harrison Ford (“Indiana Jones” franchise and “Random Hearts”) star in this medical drama. It is inspired by the remarkable real-life events described in “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million –and Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children,” a 2006 book by Geeta Anand.

John and Aileen Crowley (Fraser and Keri Russell from “August Rush” and “Felicity”) are a happily married couple with three children. Two of their children, 8-year-old Megan and 6-year-old Patrick, have Pompe disease. It is a rare neuromuscular genetic disorder that occurs in people who inherit a defective gene from each parent. It most often affects the muscles used for breathing and mobility. Most children die from respiratory or cardiac complications before 2 years of age.

John is a successful executive whose salary and health insurance pay for the $40,000/month 24-hour care required by his two children in wheelchairs and on respirators.

When Megan nearly dies and her doctor utters the familiar line “there is nothing we can do,” John decides to challenge the mortality odds and joins forces with Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford), an eccentric research scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Stonehill has a theory about creating an enzyme to break down the sugar buildup in the diseased cells. He has worked on this for 10 years, but has received inadequate funding and no grants have been approved.

John puts his business background to good use. A nonprofit foundation is created and fundraising activities provide seed money for a bio-tech company. Venture capital is raised for this start-up concern. Ultimately, a big pharmaceutical company enters into a buyout agreement. A clinical drug trial is the initial step before a miracle life-prolonging product comes to the marketplace for consumption.

This uplifting movie provides hope and inspiration for all families struggling with crippling diseases. Annual telethons continue requesting donations, but we never see research results or hear about improvements. This movie is informative and educational in showing what it takes to make a medical breakthrough and turn ideas into viable prescription medication.

The movie is directed by Tom Vaughn (“What Happens in Vegas”) and written by Robert Nelson Jacobs (“The Shipping News” and “Chocolat”). It too often settles for mediocrity and mirrors a sugar-coated “disease of the week” production usually found on either the Lifetime or Hallmark television channel.

The movie plays fast and loose with the facts, stretching both credibility and believability. Dramatic license was taken, making the sick kids much older (they were actually only 15 months and 5 months old when doctors told their parents they were holding on to life by a thread) and the fictional character created for executive producer Ford represents a composite of various real-life scientists.

The movie injects doses of humor into a deadly serious subject. The wooden acting and dull dialogue detract from the compelling storyline, which is essentially a race against the system and time.

Fraser maintains a constant look of concern. Russell is merely window dressing as the supportive wife and tender-hearted mother. Ford gets to play an angry and disagreeable loose cannon with a short fuse. Kansas City, Kan., native and KU graduate Dee Wallace has a cameo as a waitress in a Nebraska bar.

Be sure to bring tissues since this crowd-pleaser will elicit tears of sadness, hope and joy. At the conclusion of a free advance screening, a satisfied audience gave the movie its stamp of approval with a sustained round of loud applause.

Top 5 Flick Picks

1. It’s Complicated

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4. Crazy Heart

5. Extraordinary Measures

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