From the moment country singer Bad Blake, personified by Jeff Bridges, steps out of his old truck in front of a bowling alley, you can practically imagine the plaque on his arteries, the tar covering his lungs, and the alcohol saturating his liver. Bad is bad to his body, seemingly a collection of bodily fluids. But he’s very good on stage, even if he has to take whiskey breaks, and the stage is in a bowling alley in the Midwest. Actually, Bridges is very good, sounding like an undeservedly forgotten great from the outlaw heyday (the 1970s) of country music, not a singing actor. As it happens, give him a scraggly beard and he looks a lot like Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson must have been an inspiration to first-time director Scott Cooper, who had wanted to make a biopic about Waylon Jennings but instead adapted a novel by Thomas Cobb. It helps that the songs written by T-Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton are entirely convincing as old classics, especially the song that’s supposed to be Blake’s signature song. (“Funny how falling feels like flying…for a little while” goes the chorus.)
Blake doesn’t seem like a unique character, but rather someone who feels familiar from the first, even if you may not know anyone like him. (The 2001 movie Jackpot covered some of this same turf, but less successfully, and with lesser singing talent.) The next low-paying gig, the next bottle of whiskey, and the next (hoped-for) record deal keep him moving forward. He resents the success of his onetime backing-band member (Colin Ferrell, who also sings) who now plays His shot at redemption—a romance with a Santa Fe single mom (Maggie Gyllenhaal)—is a fairly obvious plot device, too. Yet the movie, like its central character, has an easy charm about it, and the portrait of life on the road, and Bridges’s captivating performance, make this worthwhile, especially, though not exclusively, if you like rootsy country music.
IMDB link
viewed 1/27/10 at Ritz East and reviewed 1/27–29/10
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