An Education & Crazy Heart: A Double Review
I thought since An Education was just released on video two weeks ago and Crazy Heart is about to be released soon, I’d review these two quieter, more under-the-radar Oscar nominees. What struck me as I watched these films this past week is that while they have their distinct differences (one about a present-day drunken country music has-been, the other about an early ‘60s wide-eyed English academic teenager) the main characters of these films also have their similarities.
An Education is written by author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About A Boy), adapted from Lynn Barber’s memoir. Its central character is Jenny, a 16 year-old intellectual with dreams of going to university, gaining vast amounts of knowledge, and earning a career among the bourgeoisie. She meets David, a young (but significantly older) man who is charming, sweet, and exposes Jenny to the culture, high art, and intellectual discourse she dreams her future will center around. Jenny becomes seduced intellectually by David and they fall in love. Once this love begins to affect her education, Jenny must decide between a life of love and culture or one of studies and reputable academia.
Crazy Heart stars Jeff Bridges as country singer Bad Blake, an aging drunkard, who’s pissed his career down to the toilets of bowling alleys and small-town bars. He’s lost all meaningful connections in his life: wives, fellow country stars, music, his audiences, and a son. The only thing that means anything to him is booze; he just plays the music of his glory days for the money to get more booze. Then Bad meets a young small-town journalist who gives him his first interview in years. In Jean, Bad finds someone who actually cares about the man behind the guitar and possesses the intelligence his one-night-only flings lack. As they fall in love, a former protégé named Tommy, now at the top of the charts, courts Bad back to the spotlight and asks his mentor to write new songs for him. Bad is given an opportunity by both Jean and Tommy at a life beyond the next small town and bottle of whisky.
While these two characters exist decades and oceans apart, it’s interesting how they are both seduced by something not necessarily in their best interests. For Bad it’s alcohol; for Jenny it’s a life with David. There are a couple things about David that Jenny discovers that I won’t spoil here; needless to say, they go beyond an age difference in complicating a future together. Both Bad and Jenny are presented with difficult choices in their lives that will significantly alter them for better or worse.
Jenny is a teenager who thinks she knows everything yet knows nothing and is tempted to potentially throw everything away in order to impulsively follow her heart. Bad is an old man who’s lived a long life dictated by his impulses, and is left with little to show for it. These two seem to tell us that life is full of these opportunities for success and destruction; that a 58 year-old can be every bit as foolish about life as a 16 year-old.
Both films offer superb performances from their leads.
Jeff Bridges as Bad is perpetually drunk, disheveled, with his belt almost always loose. It seems his belt is his one concession toward a public image. Some people wear nicer clothes, or apply make-up before putting on a show or being seen by the public; Bad buckles his belt. You get a clear understanding that, years ago when he had the Cash, he was a lot less Haggard. It is one of the actor’s least glamorous roles – and he’s an actor whose most memorable characters are anything but sophisticated! His endless drinking habit is presented casually rather than heavily and didactically. It truly is one of the best performances of its year.
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Jean is a magnet for bad relationships, which is why she’s not married to her son’s father. Perhaps this is one reason why she so easily falls for someone named Bad. Yet, the movie is one of those rare stories that clearly demonstrate her reluctance over being with Bad. She knows he’s a drunk and decades older than her. Her gut tells her this may not end well. But she sees him anyway. It’s important to note that, unlike in other films, Jean does not enable Bad’s drinking. “Just do me one favor… don’t drink in front of Buddy,” she says. In fact, Jean’s involvement in Bad’s life leads to an event that triggers a huge development of his character.
Meanwhile, Carey Mulligan’s Jenny is one of the most quietly complex female characters in recent memory; there is no bombastic “Look at me! I’m multidimensional!” showboating in her performance. Mulligan perfectly portrays the line between intelligent young woman and naïve schoolgirl that her character embodies. She also possesses strength and independence at a time when society was months away from allowing women to stand strong without a rich man or academic degree.
Peter Sarsgaard and Alfred Molina are excellent as the two men who want the best for Jenny and try guiding her future in one direction or another. Molina, as Jenny’s father, perfectly balances between an arrogant and classist father-knows-best and a befuddled, yet likeable oaf. Sarsgaard should be unlikable as an older man seducing jailbait, but he’s charming, sweet, and appears almost as foolish as Jenny. That’s quite an achievement.
Aside from the characters, what’s interesting about An Education is everyone thinks they have it all figured out, but their perspective is equally as flawed as the others. There is no one example that is more righteous than the others. This refusal to moralize - as well as its fine performance by Carey Mulligan - helps make An Education something different than anything we’ve seen before and worth seeking out.
As for Crazy Heart, its songs, produced by T Bone Burnett, are really good and seem to speak to the character or the story. Also worthy of mention is a certain Irish actor (whose identity I’ll leave to others to spoil since the director intended it to be a surprise) who plays Tommy, Bad Blake’s former protégé. It’s a great part that differs from the norm in that it’s completely devoid of arrogance and full of reverence of his mentor.
Crazy Heart is a very fine film that’s not about major events in its character’s life, but about the character itself. Its strong performances and excellently written script and songs make it one of last year’s best films.
It’s a shame lesser films stole the award recognition Crazy Heart so greatly deserved, but at least Jeff Bridges got his. And, while I’m not sure An Education deserved its Best Picture nod, it certainly is more deserving than others. Both films offer uniquely complex leads that are equally believable and true (it helps that both are based on real people). Their choices mirror the fragility of our own and how one choice can either ruin or reward our lives.
Should you see them? Rent both
An Education: 7/10 Crazy Heart: 8/10
Crazy Heart will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on 4/20/10.
An Education is available now on DVD and Blu-Ray.