Official movie posterHow do you know when you’ve hit rock bottom?
Is it when you’re puking violently into a rusty old trash can outside a rundown bowling alley in the middle of nowhere Arizona? Is it when your whiskey-induced haze causes you lose a someone else’s child in a Texas shopping mall? Or is it when you’re lying wasted on your bed in your empty house, realizing that you have no one left?
Not the son you abandoned when he was four years old, not his mother who died a year ago without your knowledge and certainly not the woman who, against her better judgement, let you into her house and heart only to have you betray that sacred trust because of your addiction.
When Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) hits rock bottom, he just gets out a shovel and starts digging.
The once chart-topping country artist now spends his days as a ramblin’ man of the South, traveling from one smoke-filled saloon to another, spending each night with a different woman. In fact, the twilight of Blake’s career looks exactly like the beginning of most struggling young artists, playing in small, intimate settings with a local yet devoted fan base.
His voice is husky and gruff from years of smoking and alcohol abuse, but his music is the heart of America. Stories pulled from experience and brought to life through the art of country music, and real people really relating to what they’re hearing. This is America.
Despite his rough start on the path back to the heyday of his career, things begin to look up for Blake when he meets a reporter, Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and her son: a second chance to be the father he never was to his own son.
But even the promise of a fresh start with a new, self-made family isn’t enough to pry the bottle from his weathered hands. Though the story is a familiar one, perhaps too familiar for those who grew up with an alcoholic family, there is hope for Blake, both professionally and personally.
A last-minute offer from one of Blake’s former Bad’s Boys turns into a golden opportunity for Blake to step back into the spotlight of the country music scene.
Despite the fact that it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth to accept help from his former protege, Blake agrees to open and write for Tommy Sweet (Colin Ferrell), the modern counterpart to Blake’s successful career.
New meets old. Student reunites with teacher. And the dynamic between Blake and Sweet shows the clear distinction between the country music of yesterday and the new country of today: the dichotomy between writing for the love of music and performing for the love of fame, success and money.
For Blake, much of his songwriting “comes from life, unfortunately.” But with such powerful music that sticks to the ribs like a hearty bowl of grits for breakfast, it is clear that his songs reach his audience on a much deeper level than simple storytelling. It’s written on their faces–the way they nod along with the beat, the way they smile in empathy with the lyrics, the way they enthusiastically clap and sing along to the parts they know.
Woven through all of this is the beautifully arid scenery of the southwest: the endless plains of Texas, the dry brush of Arizona speckling the desert, the reddened hills of New Mexico, and the stretches of highway that lead from here to there, quite a contrast from the neon lights cluttering the stuffy bars. And as the camera pans off into a beautiful desert sunset, it’s hard not to hope that Bad Blake has a second chance to rectify a life gone off-track.
rachel grice 