Movie Review: 'Crazy Heart'

Published Nov. 25, 2009 at 8:56 p.m.
First-time director Scott Cooper, who wrote the screenplay from a Thomas Cobb novel, gives his cast (which includes Duvall, in a small but tasty role) lots of breathing room. What he prizes in this character study is not originality, but authenticity. From the songs Blake sings (written by Stephen Bruton and T. Bone Burnett) to the light in the eyes of his aging groupies, the details feel right...gets to you like a good country song—not because it tells you something new, but because it tells it well. It's the singer, not the song.

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