Crazy Heart

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2009, 112 min
Section: Official Selection - Out of Competition

Synopsis

Country singer-songwriter Otis "Bad” Blake once had a successful career, but now at age 57 he just roams around small-town bars in the southwestern United States taking one-night stands. He plays guitar and sings, but he mainly drinks in order to wash away his bitterness. Bad’s private life isn’t any consolation either: he lives alone, with a history of failed marriages behind him, and he hasn’t seen his adult son in 24 years. Can a likable, divorced journalist named Jean and her four-year-old son Buddy help the lonely man find new meaning in his life? The focal point of this Thomas Cobb novel adaptation is 60-year-old Jeff Bridges, whose acting and singing performance earned him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and an Independent Spirit Award. The writers of the theme song "The Weary Kind” also took an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and an Independent Spirit Award went to the producers for Best Debut.

About the director

Scott Cooper (b. 1970, Abingdon, Virginia) studied acting at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City. At the end of the 1990s he began appearing in minor roles in television series. He earned starring roles in the Vietnam War drama Rain (2001, dir. Robert J. Wilson) and in the romantic drama Save It for Later (2003, dir. Clark Brigham). He wrote the script for the horror film For Sale by Owner (2009), which he coproduced and starred in for director Robert J. Wilson. Cooper considers actor, producer, and director Robert Duvall as his mentor, and he met the veteran star during the shooting of the costume war drama Gods and Generals (2003, dir. Ronald F. Maxwell) and the Western miniseries "Broken Trail” (2006, dir. Walter Hill). Duvall also took one of the main roles in Cooper’s directorial debut Crazy Heart (2009).