2009 The Wrestler remakeRating: 14/20 (Jen: 13/20)
Plot: Bad Blake is a country music legend, but not the good type of legend that people still care about. He's more the washed-up legend who drives himself to bowling alleys in Texas to perform with local music talent in front of small crowds so that he can buy more booze and, if he's lucky, hook up with a floozy. He agrees to an interview with the niece of a piano player, and they hook up. He falls in love with her and her son, but he's got a little too much Mickey Rourke in him to make it work.
First off, I needed help from Jen to discover that this and The Wrestler have an inexcusable amount of parallels. They're not exactly alike since Jeff Bridges doesn't bleed nearly as much as the wrestler and Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn't repeatedly take her clothes off like Marissa Tomei, but other than that, this is about the same movie. Oh, and this one has a lot more country western music. That's probably the main problem with this movie for me--the music isn't really good at all. Bad's supposed to be a great songwriters, but the audience doesn't get to see any evidence of that in the film. There are lots of songs, but they either all sound the same, have really trite lyrics, or all sound the same with really trite lyrics. Jeff Bridges isn't really a terrific singer. He's adequate, but watching him perform as washed-up Bad Blake never really made me think that he was even a shadow of anything legendary. Other than that, Jeff Bridges is (surprise!) great. It's not a flashy performance, and he builds his character in a way that makes it seem like he didn't put any work into it at all. But it's a pitch-perfect performance, and it's hard to argue with the Academy since they're almost always right. I like the conflict with Colin Farrell's Tommy Sweet character, but when we finally get to meet Tommy Sweet, there's not enough to his character for that conflict to even matter. The conflict's more an internal one with Blake, I guess. I just wish there was more to this movie. It doesn't feel complete.
I generally hate country music, so just the fact the the songs and Bridges' singing didn't make me want to hurl is high praise. Better songs would have made it more believable, but this didn't damage the film in the way "Dreamgirls" was hurt by mediocre music.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of similarities to "The Wrestler", but I can see your point. Comparing the two, I thought of this film as much more subtle and real (though I could have done without the distracting presence of Robert Duvall). The performances were all terrific and I really liked the pace. It was telling a familiar story, but in a very laid-back, unmanipulative way. I even liked Colin Farrell (!) in an excellent performance. I loved Bridges in this role (he would be near the top of my best actors today list), and was very moved by the end, and the ending. A 16, and maybe in my top-10 for 2009.
Duvall WAS distracting! He's never done it for me anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't have problems with the indeterminate ending?