Jeff Bridges: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Bad Blake - Crazy Heart

It took a fair old while, but Jeff Bridges finally earned the Academy Award he so richly deserved at the 2009 ceremony for his starring role in Crazy Heart. Bridges played Otis "Bad" Blake, a 57-year-old alcoholic singer-songwriter who was once a country music star. When we meet him, however, he's fallen on hard times, touring the South, playing in dive bars to nostalgic audiences, and indulging in unfulfilling one-night stands. That all changes when Maggie Gyllenhaal's local news reporter interviews him when he's drifting through yet another desert community, who pushes him to sort his life out after reminding him of his halcyon days. He tries his best to get clean, improve his career, and repair his relationship with Colin Farrell's Tommy Sweet, a successful country music star he once mentored. To be honest, Crazy Heart isn't that great a film. Most of the supporting roles are fairly underwritten (especially Gyllenhaal's), and there aren't many twists on the classic arcs of the washed-up celebrity finding fame again or the charmless alcoholic getting back on the wagon. Plus why did they cast Colin Farrell as a country-western singer? We don't know. We do know that Bridges absolutely deserved that Oscar, however, as he imbues the character of Otis Blake with a gravitas and humanity that isn't real inherent in the script, but is very much alive in his performance. Even when the film's trotting out bad dialogue and narrative cliches, Bridges totally sells it, with a fearless and committed performance that dazzled the audience and Academy alike. As well it should.