The film stars four-time Oscar-nominee Jeff Bridges as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake – a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times.

And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

The debut feature of writer-director Scott Cooper, “Crazy Heart” is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb. Like a sly and tender country song, laced with equal parts passion, humor and trouble, “Crazy Heart” is the portrait of a man who has lived hard, fast and recklessly, but still goes after the salvation of love when his heart gets what appears to be one last chance to redeem itself.

Scott Cooper – himself a Southerner steeped in the rollicking legends and bittersweet themes of country music –always saw the outsized lead character Bad Blake as a mirror of the country heroes he grew up idolizing, in spite of their wildly unpredictable love lives and battles with their darker impulses. Bad might indeed have a “bad” streak – he can be as ornery, irresponsible, intoxicated and ridiculous as they come – but he is equally a gifted storyteller, an unsinkable romantic, a soul in need, and a man who finally proves himself willing to chase after redemption when all seems lost.

In many ways, it came naturally to Cooper. “I grew up with this type of music, living in the same type of world that Bad Blake lives in. And being an actor myself, I understood the nature of a performance-driven story. I felt like if I couldn’t do this, having grown up in the South, steeped in country rock, working as an actor, I was in trouble,” he laughs.

Nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Actor, Fox Searchlight’s critically acclaimed drama “Crazy Heart” is a Fox Searchlight film distributed locally by Warner Bros.

Brilliant acting by Jeff Bridges and some solid performances by others hold up a movie that has an incoherent, low intensity albeit realistic story. The score of the movie (which is mostly country music) is also pretty good. "Crazy Heart" is not your average motivational movie with strong dialogue and high intensity drama. It follows a sober and a rather unusual romantic story. The story is loosely knit by a few incidents that follow the life of a very talented country musician who is also a raging alcoholic and a chain smoker. On one hand the lack of grandiose drama makes the story more plausible and real but at the same time some may feel that its devoid of depth or intensity. 'Crazy Heart,' which was written by Cooper from the eponymous novel by Thomas Cobb, is perhaps a bit schematic about the up-down-up trajectory of the talented loser, but it manages to be pretty realistic about the degeneration that is terminal alcoholism. Here, however, it's not a slide into hell like Mike Figgis' Leaving Las Vegas. Though only by the skin of his teeth, and with multiple ailments a car crash reveals, Bad is surviving. So when the moment comes and he hits his bottom, he still has the strength to straighten out. Maybe the fast-forward finale is a bit too upbeat, but the memory the movie leaves is, of course, of Bridges with a bottle, a guitar, and a sad sweet song, and of some of the year's best movie acting. Crazy Heart isn't perfect, but I'm willing to go as far to say that Jeff Bridges is. I can get past the imperfections of the storyline and the slight melodramatic feel the last third of the film emanates when the film boasts a cast as good as this. This is a solid film that is a pure delight to watch. And best of all, it nabbed Jeff Bridges a long overdue Oscar win. Brilliant, pure and realistic performance by him, Maggie was good too lovely movie.