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Rating: The directorial debut of Scott Cooper could be described as a classic exercise in style.
The America of vast spaces and boundless distances, country music which is a popular expression and provincial stronghold of life stories as old as time. Behind this vividly painted scene stands a proud Jeff Bridges in the character of Bad Blake, an old country legend and victim of a past spent between cheap whiskey, cigarettes, and four marriages behind him. The chance to redeem himself with a journalist, Jean Craddock (a delightful Maggie Gyllenhaal), accompanied by a child, and his protégé Colin Sweet (a bewildered Colin Farrell) who is blessed with success and needs him as a songwriter.
Behind all this is a collection of songs crafted by the guru T-Bone Burnett, a guarantee of soundtracks tied to American musical roots, second-hand venues, and shabby hotels, and a world that the old lion Bad Blake struggles to accept, much like the new country music deemed devoid of feelings. Jeff Bridges brings to the stage a character in all his honest straightforwardness as a rough but genuine man, who manages to express tenderness when he takes his guitar in hand once more, despite never letting go of the bottle.
A road movie reminiscent of a thousand others, just mention Lynch's "The Straight Story," characters that echo the lives of countless other heroes of that music, from Waylon Jennings to Steve Earle to Kris Kristofferson, perhaps a slightly sappy cliché at times but, with the unyielding and solid presence of Jeff Bridges not forgetting the tender support of Robert Duvall, the film gains dignity and true human depth.
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