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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Crazy Heart

EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Crazy Heart reviews
83
7.6 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Scott Cooper

Directed by: Scott Cooper

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 16, 2009

Running Time: 180 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language and brief sexuality

Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, and Sarah Jane Morris

Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart. (Fox Searchlight)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A small movie perfectly scaled to the big performance at its center.

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100

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Gyllenhaal is charming and makes unexpected choices in her performance, but this is Bridges' show, and he's as Best Actor-worthy as he's ever been.

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100

Slate Dana Stevens

On first viewing, Crazy Heart seemed like a pretty good movie with one great performance. After a second time through, it's sneaking up on the title of my favorite film of the year.

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Jeff Bridges is a virtual certainty to win his first Oscar, after four nominations.

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100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Crazy Heart is the real thing, and a real gem.

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91

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Bridges draws us deeply inside Blake’s moment-to-moment heartbreaks. He makes us root for him as we would root for a dear friend. Ultimately, his triumphs become our own.

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90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Crazy Heart is blessed with so many marvelous moments, lovely lines and vivid characters.

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90

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

On a par with Bridges' acting, and a sine qua non for Crazy Heart's success, is the excellent music he sings.

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90

Newsweek David Ansen

Crazy Heart gets to you like a good country song--not because it tells you something new, but because it tells it well. It's the singer, not the song.

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90

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

It's merely a well-done, adult American movie--that is to say, a rarity.

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88

New York Post Kyle Smith

Can’t possibly deserve your close attention. Yet it does, with distilled honky-tonk poetry and generous good humor. It’s one of the year’s best, most deeply felt films.

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88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The music is terrific, as it should be in a movie where T Bone Burnett wrote the songs with Stephen Bruton.

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88

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

This performance reminds us that Bridges is that rare actor who has never had to make that apology. Crazy Heart lets him be every bit as grand as we’d hope him to be.

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88

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

A simple story about a difficult man, and it's an impressive debut from writer-director Scott Cooper.

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83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Crazy Heart could use more rough edges, but while it’s a little too sentimental and tidy, Bridges’ humane, deeply empathetic lead performance makes it easy to root for one man’s redemption.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Bridges' guileless performance makes this piquant little indie tale of country music, redemption, and the love of a pretty younger woman such a sad-song charmer.

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80

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Bridges performance in Crazy Heart, for my money the finest male performance of the year, reels us right back to understanding why: Instead of dressing up words, he sends them out naked. It's everything he subtracts that matters.

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80

Variety Todd McCarthy

Ever-youthful in his looks and energy, Bridges now stands as one of Hollywood's great old pros, incapable of making a false move.

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80

Empire Nev Pierce

A phenomenal, heart-breaking performance from Jeff Bridges powers this simple but affecting redemption story.

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80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Robert Duvall, who played a similar character in Bruce Beresford's "Tender Mercies" (1983), turns up in a supporting role.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Bridges makes this sozzled and desperate ex-desperado – a cliché by any other name – as fresh and vital as one final shot at cowboy-poet redemption. It may sound crazy, but it's true.

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75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Bridges brings his 50 years of acting experience to this one captivating, surprisingly moving performance.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Perhaps the idea of watching Jeff Bridges as a drunken, broken-down, down-on-his luck country music singer in Crazy Heart doesn't automatically sound appealing. But think this: "The Wrestler." With good songs.

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75

Washington Post Staff (Not credited)

The virtues of Crazy Heart only begin with Bridges: Music fans will rejoice at the movie's songs.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Bridges's big performance takes place in the context of a relatively minor movie.

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75

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

What makes this low-key movie memorable are the pitch-perfect performances.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Even when you know what's coming, Crazy Heart haunts you like a classic country song. It's a mesmerizer. So is Bad Blake. This dude also abides.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Crazy Heart is the country music version of "The Wrestler": a grizzled veteran whose days in the spotlight are behind him struggles to keep going while seeing the world through a haze of regret and booze.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

Crazy Heart, based on a 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb, also has great music. Even if you're not a country music fan, the songs, by T Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton, are infectious.

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70

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Crazy Heart lacks that spark of originality. So what Fox Searchlight has salvaged essentially is a highly watchable performance by Bridges, one of many he has furnished throughout a long career.

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70

The New Yorker David Denby

It has a gentle, unforced rhythm, and what’s there is good and true. But there’s not enough of it--the movie needs more plot, more complication, more conflict.

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60

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

A manufactured kid-in-jeopardy climax and Blake’s rehab stint blow the mood. Until then, this is great American acting.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Billy S. gave it a9:
Jeff Bridges - that's all you need to know to go see this movie. The actor who's been around forever and forever doing Iconic performances from The Last Picture Show, Tucker, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Fearless, and "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski now adds Crazy Heart to his resume, and it will be known as his Signature performance. Bad Blake is acting perfection and the Academy will finally engrave Jeff Bridges for Best Actor in a Leading Role on the Oscar he richly deserves and has been robbed of so many times before.

Lisa C. gave it a4:
So disappointed in this movie. I agree that Maggie G. was miscasted, as others do. Despite Jeff Bridges doing a good job in the role, the characters really don't evolve and it is drawn out. Had really looked forward to this.

Kenneth S gave it a10:
I've seen and heard this story before many times, but Mr. Bridges' and Mrs. Gyllenhaal's performances seem both effortless and truly moving. They are the beating heart of a wonderfully written song which, in the end, is neither happy nor sad, but everything in between.

Judy F. gave it a6:
A mildly disappointing film -- despite all the hoo-haw. The story of a down-and-out country singer who finds love and then redemption is too cliche and offers few surprises. Jeff Bridges is fine and fun to watch. Maggie Gyllenhaal, not as much. For a real treat -- see the 1983 version "Tender Mercies" instead.

Qwerty gave it an8:
That's an 8 for the film overall, a mere 6 or 7 for the plot, a 9 for Gyllenhaal, and an all-out 10 for Bridges and the music. It's a toe-tapper/thigh-slapper all the way through.

Lol M gave it a4:
Someone pulled this plot out of a drawer and decided to use it once more. It is hackneyed. Bridges was great. Scenery also. But the script was tired. Robert Duvall was an alcoholic country western singer in Tender Mercies -- great plot, great music. See it.

Derek B. gave it a10:
A perfectly crafted film. Beautifully written, acted, and directed. Bravo.

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