"Crazy Heart" and "An Education"

Crazy Heart – We live in a time when Rascal Flatts is not only considered country music, but is amongst the most popular acts playing it. Meanwhile, truly talented country artists such as M. Ward and Sera Cahoone seem to only obtain cult followings. Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) was once at the top of the country world, but as the popular sound has veered farther away from his own, he has found himself driving his truck to play shows at bars and bowling alleys across the southwest. At age 57 his only remaining fans seem to be other musicians and people in their sixties.
Prior to one of his shows, Bad is asked to do a favor for a musician’s niece. Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a reporter for a small paper in New Mexico and Bad makes no secret of his attraction to her as she conducts her interview. It doesn’t hurt that she has an appreciation of his music. Jean, a single mother of a four year old boy, is reluctant to embark on a relationship with an alcoholic musician twice her age, but she’s won over fairly quickly. This could have sent “Crazy Heart” off the rails about half an hour in, but as written and directed by Scott Cooper (based on the 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb), the character motivations do make sense, aided in no small part by the performances of Bridges and Gyllenhaal. This can be said of most every element in this film.
“Crazy Heart” as a story feels familiar at most every turn. Bad’s alcoholism, his divorces, the fact that he hasn’t seen his son in almost 25 years, and the ups and downs of his relationship with Jean are all things we’ve seen before. Cooper and Cobb get no points for story originality but the characters make complete sense. It’s a wonderful showcase for Bridges, who has been winning well-deserved awards for the past few months and will almost certainly win his first Oscar. I’m hard pressed to think of new ways to praise his work here so I’ll simply say it speaks for itself and he is a heck of a singer. Gyllenhaal does a terrific job as Jean. We know she should know better than to let Bad into her life and the life of her child but we understand her. Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall provide nice support in what little screen time they have as well.
Cooper’s film is held back by the story’s predictability and familiarity but well crafted characters make this very worthwhile. 7.5/10.

An Education – Another familiar kind of tale is the teenage coming of age drama, but Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” sets itself apart not only with its well developed characters but through its storytelling. It’s not a masterpiece but absolutely everything about it is just so good. Very good.
A few weeks shy of her 17th birthday, Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan, “Pride and Prejudice”) feels as though she’s going to burst. It’s 1961 and this London girl from a modest family yearns to experience life to its fullest extent. She is far and away the brightest student in her school and is steadily on the track towards acceptance to Oxford. Her father Jack (Alfred Molina) makes sure her life is as crafted as it can be. It’s important, he feels, that she play classical music in the school orchestra, not for artistic reasons, but because it shows she’s a “joiner-inner.” Her mother (Cara Seymour) is not so strict herself but she tends to go along with her husband’s rules for their daughter. Listening to a French singer on a record is an almost forbidden escape for Jenny. Living a life of excitement seems to be far, far away until she meets the older David (Peter Sarsgaard).
David is an ideal suitor in Jenny’s mind because he can not only offer her excitement and seemingly never-ending fun, but he’s a perfect gentleman upon meeting her parents. Even Jack approves of him within moments. But as Jenny and David get closer she realizes the jazz clubs and weekend getaways come with some very serious strings attached. David isn’t the gentleman he presents himself to be and the life he promises may not be real.
Written by Nick Hornby (author of the novels “About a Boy” and “High Fidelity”) and based on the memoir by Lynn Barber, “An Education” is filled with characters who may seem one dimensional at a glance but who are given greater depth with each passing moment. David’s not the only character who’s more than meets the eye. Jack is not simply a stuffy British father of a teenage girl. He’s a deeply fallible but ultimately loving parent who desperately wants Jenny to have a better life than he’s had. Molina breathes an enormous amount of life into the character. Olivia Williams (“Rushmore”) also does a terrific job as one of Jenny’s teachers, who cares greatly for her students. It’s another character who is more than she initially appears to be.
Ultimately though, this film belongs to Mulligan and Sarsgaard as the couple that cannot conceivably work. They each have a lot to work with thanks to the wonderful writing and they make the most of it. Mulligan has a tall order playing a teenage girl torn between two staggeringly different choices, each of which has their advantages. She pulls it off almost effortlessly, never going over the top or hitting a false note. Her Oscar nomination is richly deserved. As always, you just can’t catch Peter Sarsgaard acting. He’s as natural as they come (subtle and stellar in “Shattered Glass,” “Garden State,” “Jarhead,” and “Kinsey”). The man simply doesn’t do flashy theatrics. Even after we’ve seen who David really is we still find ourselves a bit charmed by him. It takes an actor like Sarsgaard to make that possible.
A few days after seeing it I’m still deciding what I really think was the meaning behind Jenny’s closing lines and if a movie has you doing that then that’s pretty special. One of the more deserving of this year’s Best Picture nominees, “An Education” is not to be missed. 9/10.