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I've heard all the Oscar buzz about Jeff Bridges and thought it was, "yadda-yadda-yadda-deja-Mickey-Roarke." How could Bridges be as good as George Clooney in the almost-perfect Up in the Air?
Well, because acting isn't an athletic competition. And because Jeff Bridges is so completely believable in this that I not only bought him as an over-the-hill country singer, I swear I could smell how bad his whiskey-and-cigarette breath must be. And because this part was so different from all the other times I've enjoyed his work:
• the President in The Contender
• the Husband in The Mirror Has Two Faces
• the Accused in The Jagged Edge
• the The Bad Boy Brother in The Fabulous Baker Boys
• the Sweet Fiance in Kiss Me Goodbye and ... (drumroll, please)
• in one of my favorite love/sex scenes of all time in Against All Odds.
But back to Bad, his character in Crazy Heart. I can't tell you about his best moments without giving away a plot twist, but there's a sequence where my heart went out to him even as I wanted to slug him.
And Colin Farrell is surprisingly good, too.
See this.