By Summer Rogers
Daily Titan Staff Writer

A film about country music that has a crazy amount of heart, soul and emotion, Crazy Heart serves as an examination of fame and failure and the humanity behind it all.

Washed-up 57-year-old country singer Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges, The Men Who Stare at Goats) is struggling to survive by playing hole-in-the-wall bars across America.

Blake, not only in a slum in his career, is an alcoholic, a smoker and is 25 pounds overweight and doesn’t care about his destructive state.

Even when Blake finds love in the form of single-mother reporter, Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Dark Knight), it doesn’t make him realize he’s not only hurting himself, but also the people around him until it’s too late.

Bridges shines as the shell of a human being as he gives Blake the ‘crazy heart’ and soul that makes the character so real. In addition to his superb acting, Bridges showcases his incredible vocal talents; he could be a successful country singer if he so desired. This performance should earn him a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars.

Gyllenhaal is the rose to Bridge’s thorn; she brings a soft, femininity to the abrasiveness of Blake, and creates a balance between the two characters.

Actor Colin Farrell has a small role as Tommy Sweet, Blake’s protégé who is playing sold-out concerts and is infusing the “real country” of Blake’s soulful songs with main stream music to build his success (think Garth Brooks). Farrell, an Irishman, transforms flawlessly into an American country star, which is a pleasant surprise and demonstrates Farrell’s diversity as an actor.

Crazy Heart is a journey best taken with an open mind and heart. As much as the film sounds like a drama, there are laughs (provided by Bridges) and a great moral to the story.