Not so crazy heart....

Saw CRAZY HEART this weekend and was generally disappointed. It has a lot of the weaknesses of indie films, just not good enough of a story to sustain interest. A lot of independent films, even the ones I like, are “little stories” which sometimes works out, but a lot of times I get the same “Is that it?” reaction that I have with a lot of the newer books these days. It was also about 20 minutes too long.

Too bad, because the movie did have potential. Jeff Bridges’ performance is really good, and I dug how he resembled Waylon Jennings during the first half of the film---looked quite a bit like him, and the singing style was similar. They even have “Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?” on the soundtrack at one point. But the story was pretty tired, and I was often able to predict what was going to happen. Sometimes I would think something really bad would happen and it would end up being not that big a deal.

I get tired of stories where the main character learns a lesson, transforms, etc. I understand the need people have to see feel-good transformative stories [sorry if I’m giving too much away]. But let’s face it, life isn’t that way most of the time. I’d rather see something where the main character doesn’t change, or where they are met with a challenge but fail. Or, so much like the real world, instead of them being redeemed by other people, they drag others down with them. But I guess not many would want to see or read something like that. Too many are probably living it.