I think she overreacted when he lost the kid. It could happen to anyone,even if they're sober.If she loved him like she said, she would have given him a second chance. She could see he really loved the kid.
I felt sorry for the poor fool. I really did.
Remember at the start when Bad asked her about Buddy's father and she answered with something like, 'I made a lot of mistakes.' Yeah and as a result she got knocked up and now has a kid so she sees the consequences of bad choices. Ergo when Bad lost the kid in the mall, Maggie had to pull back, even though she might be in love with Bad. Had to because her first loyalty was to the little boy. I further think that her reaction or over reaction was as much as to blame herself as to take it out on Bad and the need to separate from him so she could keep things together. Also recall that earlier in the film when Bad was getting in his truck to go, and he wants to kiss her, she recoils from the booze on his breath and she says something like, 'I don't want that around Buddy.' Yet Bad DID take the kid into the bar. It all came together, his drinking, her need to protect her kid, not make any MORE mistakes with her life. So she did what she had to do, split. It all worked out anyway: Bad enters AA and turned to song writing and made good money; and she went on to a better job and maybe a better guy. Which is not to say, that if Crazy Heart was a half hour longer, she would have bedded down once more with Bad whose country charm was irresistible!!!
thank you very much for that great analysis there, maestro 45! I think you nailed Jean there and made her actions understandable, albeit not reasonable. I thought too that she overreacted heavily over the incident at the mall, and when he came to her house all sober and she closed the door on him - i felt real heartbreak. So I really liked your closing sentence, though from my opinion i stated elsewhere, it wouldn´t even have taken half an hour longer and would´t have been about the bed only. Some things you can´t shake off with a breakup like that, and - as someone else here mentioned - however decent the guy was she got engaged to (to feel safe from her own troubled emotions), if she didn´t want to reconnect in some way, she would not have come to see him at the concert in the first place. The interview was just an excuse, as far as I´m concerned...
Let me say this. When Crazy Heart came out I saw the previews and thought, this is just another rehash of The Wrestler from a year earlier, which was just so-so as far as I was concerned. Thus I had zilch expectations when I walked into Crazy Heart -- boy was I wrong! Crazy Heart was riveting. First off, Mickey Rourke who used to be good 20 years ago, the way he is today, is no Jeff Bridges, and Marisa Tomei, although she looks great, is no Maggie Gyllenhaal. At the start of the film as soon as Bad walks into that bowling alley and tries to get his drink at the bar, on the house, and they won't open a tab for him, says it all. Then of course, the music, which is blow away terrific, especially the number, 'I used to be somebody, now I'm somebody else.' I never heard that song before, but it was great. Also remember when Bad was performing in the bowling alley, that older woman who ends up in his motel room, and we see Bad the morning after sneaking out while she snoozes, literally fleeing the meager perks of being a 'star.' This idea is further played out at the next gig, when a much younger gal, and better looking one, very heavily comes on it him, trying to get Bad to meet her after the show, for coffee, dinner, whatever and it is obvious she will jump into bed with him. However, Bad is very subtlety changing, he puts her off. Why? Because he has already met Maggie earlier in the day and something in that encounter is impelling him toward some thing better, something real, something that is not just a one night stand. That's why Bad keeps making the point to Maggie that he wants to apologize for the cheesy motel room, etc. The good looking girl who wants to seduce Bad is easy pickings for him, but already the irresistible Maggie has got him hooked. Is it enough for Bad to change his life, at this early point? No, but as Crazy Heart unfolds, it will be. This journey, along with the fabulous music, is Bad's path to redemption, and it is a blockbuster of great drama in everyday lives that leaves the audience spellbound. (If you get the impression that I like Crazy Heart, you would be right!)
shareMaestro - i got the impression that you LOVE that movie, and i´m impressed at how accurately you pinned those subtleties and their beauty, and how much they actually reveal. That to me was the key to Crazy Heart too, it is a very intimate, multi-layered movie, and in that it either reaches into the very heart of the spectator, if he´s sensitive enough to recognize it and go along with it - or leaves him out, if he just sticks with the usual expectations. Like "it´s a film about an alcoholic". You know what i mean. (if not, just look at some of the other threads and their topics...i´d be glad to think you´d bang your head against the wall silently just as i did!) Bad Blake is such a rich character, i couldn´t stand having him reduced to "just another booze addict". In fact, to me his utterly bored grimness and irony in which he handles those degrading situations he finds himself in to me were showing his strength and his pride. It´s an offense for any creative artist to be forced to exist in the most mundane surroundings far below our abilities and sense of quality, and many take extreme measures to let "GOD" (the creative spirit we connect with when inspired) know they´re pouting. The scenes you mentioned underline that - Bad Blake desperately hungers for quality, for truth and real resonance, and as soon as he finds that in Jean, he goes for that. Nothing is more irresistible to an artist as a muse appearing when he least expects it. And she is one, as she sees through all of that superficial stuff of you know, age, appearance, drinking, whatever. But, on the other hand, she´s part muse, part mother, and those two sides to her really work against each other.
So, as she is his gift from God, so to speak, he just enjoys their connection and, i bet, doesn´t think about how to have to change to "fit into her life". He feels himself accepted and loved just the way he is... And did he ever really want to fit into her life? But anyway, from his recognizing of "how bad she makes the room look" to his going to rehab there´s a very straight line - and to me it´s less about getting the love but regaining the pride. Though love ignites that, for sure.
Another path i was following in that movie is the archetypal father-son-theme which to me is very present in Crazy Heart. And i found that played out in Bads relation to Tommy Sweet. Bad didn´t care about leaving his biological son, but had a real issue about Tommy - not about his success, but about him having become part of that prettyboy-country-business and having "left him". He wouldn´t have been that pissed for so long if he hadn´t felt so close to Tommy, and I think this closeness was very obvious in their scenes together, especially since Tommy behaved like a son who at the same time tried to regain fatherly grace, give the Old Man his due credits and stick to the road he himself had taken. What did you think about that?
I´m really looking forward to read more of your views and reflections!
Oh, i forgot to mention the songs - i got myself the soundtrack, extended edition, and i listen to it almost everyday. The songs really are great and they capture the movie and its spirit perfectly. My personal favorite is "falling and flying", especially in that duet version with Bad and Tommy, one of my favorite scenes in the movie. A subtle reconciliation, and one could see of how the Old Man got his stature back in that. Grumpily and irritated at first as he realized the sudden applause was for Tommy, not for him, but oh, how courteously they both handled the situation!
More to come? I hope so! But now it´s your turn again, maestro!
Greetings from Germany!
Ute
Utebrach (and Maestro), both of you have written eloquent and thoughtful posts that perfectly describe Crazy Heart--and Utebrach, I definitely haven't forgotten I owe you a letter--been at my sister's this week and it's very busy here, but definitely will write you tonight.
The harder the life, the sweeter the song.
You really put a lot of thought into your comment and that is commendable.You make some great points.
I do have one bone to pick with you, however.
I really like both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. I also like Maggie G and Jeff Bridges. All four have delivered some excellent performances in their careers.
I would not say that Maggie is better than Marisa.
Nor would I say that Jeff is better than Mickey.
With that comment , I take issue.
There is nothing wrong with any of those actors, except for my money, the cumulative effect of Crazy Heart was far superior to The Wrestler.
shareI thought The Wrestler was a much better picture. Although music is important in movies and this one did have some great songs.Bridges did a decent job with them, although I didn't believe for a second that he was a former country star .His voice and singing style was mediocre at best.
I think Rourke gave a performance of a lifetime and Bridges was, more or less,the same as he is in most of his parts.He didn't disappear into the character like Roarke did.
HA HA you're kidding right? He was Blake, no acting involved, check the write ups!
share
The idiot woman should never had left that ill-diciplined little momma's boy with a full blown alco....her bad. It's like asking your smack addict brother to hold on to the 3 grand you won at the horses and you'll pick it up whenever...
BUT his drinking would not of attributed to the losing of the kid...It takes a BIG effort for an alcoholic to get pi ssed, he would of been more of a scatter brain at that stage without having a drink all day.
I had a fish named Sam he lived in a bowl........
i thought she said Jean????
shareI'm not a parent so I can't say for sure, but i would like to believe that if someone lost my four year old because he was trying to maintain his buzz, I would be pretty *beep* pissed...
sharesoonerpike697 wrote:
"I'm not a parent so I can't say for sure, but i would like to believe that if someone lost my four year old because he was trying to maintain his buzz, I would be pretty *beep* pissed..."
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Buddy could've drifted away like that anywhere. Lebowski...I mean Bad...could just as well have been trying on a pair of shoes. Buddy the brat was a product of a momma who didn't raise him right and teach him not to wander away like that.
I just watched the movie last night, and I am a single mom...
There have been a few times when I didn't know where my son (15 now) was for a just few minutes or even seconds, and I was DEVASTATED. He never got lost at a mall or anything; I knew he was probably safe but he went over to a friend's without asking permission when he said he'd be at our neighborhood playground, or missed the bus after school so when I got home from work he wasn't in the house...it felt like my heart fell into my stomach! It's a terrible, terrible feeling...but cell phones have really cut down on this sort of thing!
That said, though, I thought the whole sequence of Buddy wandering away was "off"; like they edited out some crucial information. I wanted to know where Buddy went! If he had been a very hyper kid, or very upset about not being with his mom, OR if Bad had been drinking for a while and Buddy had gotten bored, it would have made more sense. Buddy liked being with Bad & they were getting a drink like a couple of cowboys; ok, NOT a healthy way to bond with a 4-year-old, but most little boys would have stuck around! I also felt that Bad didn't explain himself well. I kept thinking, he WAS getting Buddy a ginger ale, he wasn't just getting hammered & ignoring him. And he hadn't even taken a sip of his drink when Buddy disappeared. Why doesn't he tell anybody that?!?
As a parent, I understand that awful things can happen in the blink of an eye and I thought Jean's reaction was unfair...except she had asked him not to drink in front of Buddy. In her shoes I think THAT would have been the deal-breaker for me, more than the kid running off, because something like that can happen to almost anyone. Of course the whole movie turns on this point--Bad wasn't scared straight by the accident or the doctor, but by realizing he'd put Buddy in danger--but I think it could have been written/edited better.
Excellent post, piratejenny72! You made some valid points about that sequence of events in the film.
The harder the life, the sweeter the song.
piratejenny72 wrote:
"As a parent, I understand that awful things can happen in the blink of an eye and I thought Jean's reaction was unfair...except she had asked him not to drink in front of Buddy. In her shoes I think THAT would have been the deal-breaker for me, more than the kid running off, because something like that can happen to almost anyone."
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Which just goes to show how flimsy Jean's notion of "love" really was. She could have said "Bad, if you want Buddy and me in your life then you have to get treatment and stop drinking, and I mean now." Instead, she just dumped him. There's the loyalty of women for ya.
<< Which just goes to show how flimsy Jean's notion of "love" really was. She could have said "Bad, if you want Buddy and me in your life then you have to get treatment and stop drinking, and I mean now." Instead, she just dumped him. There's the loyalty of women for ya. >>
So, if she really loved him, she'd turn into a nag and make him completely change his life? Yeah, guys love THAT!
cookiela2001 wrote:
"So, if she really loved him, she'd turn into a nag and make him completely change his life? Yeah, guys love THAT!"
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Yeah, but he wound up doing exactly that! Jean's love was a fraud, a front designed to get a man to take care of her. Her brand of love is FAKE. She's just a scared little woman who uses caring for her kid as an excuse for her own fears and wishy-washiness. No wonder that first guy dumped her!
<< Jean's love was a fraud, a front designed to get a man to take care of her. Her brand of love is FAKE. She's just a scared little woman who uses caring for her kid as an excuse for her own fears and wishy-washiness. No wonder that first guy dumped her! >>
You left out she's a serial killer.
But seriously....he wouldn't have stayed sober and really reappraised his life if he's stoped drinking just to hold onto her. It wouldn't have lasted. Would we say that makes his love for her a fraud or a fake? And is it really such a bad thing to not want to be involved with an alcoholic, or have one helping to raise your child?
OVERREACTED????
Let's rehash a little story about Adam Walsh. The son of America's Most Wanted John Walsh, who was shopping with his mother in a dept store. He was 6 years old, and his mother let him watch some older boys play video games while she was just a few aisles away for no more than 7 minutes. He was abducted. His severed head was later found. Sorry, but it's the adult's responsibility to watch the children they are in charge of. Especially when they are of a certain age. Certainly, a 4 year old should not be allowed to explore so that the adult in charge of watching him can have a drink in the afternoon at a bar. Great environment for a kid, btw.
Jane, her name is not Jean, btw, was right to be angry. She was also right when she said that all she kept meeting was men who were self-involved a-holes. You sound like one of them.
Presumably, then, every parent or babysitter who's ever taken their eyes off their child, even for a couple of seconds, is a terrible parent who doesn't care if their child is abducted, raped, and murdered.
Which means that every single parent in America is terrible, unless of course they're a crazy helicopter parent. That's a hell of a choice - you can either not give a damn if your child dies, or else you can raise kids who will end up as complete messes when they grow up and can't take care of themselves.
If Bad had spent an hour getting drunk without once questioning where the kid was, then yeah, that would have been pretty irresponsible. But instead he spent a brief moment talking to the bartender, and then asked where the kid was. The bartender, who wasn't drinking at all, couldn't fathom that the kid had gone missing in that short a time. I don't recall if Bad had taken any sips when the kid went off, but if he had, they were barely halfway down his esophagus. In other words, he wasn't drunk, and drinking played no part in what happened.
And it's not like he took the kid to a place like Hooters, either. That was an old-fashioned saloon kind of place where you could just as easily get a root beer as an actual beer. Most little boys would have loved it there for the atmosphere, which the kid clearly appreciated. If I'd been there when I was 4, I also probably would have told my parents I wanted to "explore," and they certainly wouldn't have thought I meant I was going to leave the place and wander the streets until I got lost, nor would they have kept their eyes on me for every single moment I wasn't at their side.
As far as Jane goes: there are some defenses for Jane's actions, but they have nothing to do with Bad being neglectful. The defenses, IMO, are: a) she wasn't there, and she didn't know that Bad didn't do anything wrong (other than his decision to drink in front of the kid, after agreeing he wouldn't), b) Bad basically explained his actions like a retarded person, instead of making it clear that the kid snuck away, he wasn't drunk at the time, and the bartender was also mystified when the kid disappeared, and c) under those circumstances, she's allowed to be somewhat irrational. (That last one refers only to her actions when her son was missing, not later.)
Her name is mostly definitely JEAN. The captions, credits, and IMDb listing say so.
shareBut the problem is he wasn't trying on shoes he was getting loaded because he's a drunk. I guess in reality she shouldn't have been stupid enough to leave the kid with him so I guess it really is her fault for being a bad parent. Still if I left my kid with a friend of mine and asked him not to drink around my kids and then he lost one of them while getting his drink on I'd punch him right in the face and that would be the end of the friendship...
shareWhen Jane was at the door, she felt like she couldn't forgive HERSELF for Buddy getting lost, because she trusted Bad with him, and she knew, we all know, she should not have trusted him with the care of her son.
She could not forgive herself, and being with Bad again would just have been a fat reminder of the whole incident, and she had to step away from all of it.
Who is to say they would have stayed together anyway? There was no talk of marriage. She didn't accompany him on his tour.
I think the points are:
1) He had clearly been drinking all day, not just that "refresher" at the bar.
2) He had told her he wouldn't drink in front of the kid.
3) She should never have left them alone in the first place.
It was a really strange thing that the kid just vanished like that, but no matter how good Bad's intentions were, he was in no shape to watch after a small child.
Great movie! Probably the best I've seen all summer so far...
Yes everything you said is valid. Even if the kid had walked off while they were getting ice cream, it would have been a guilt trip for his mom.
And Bad was a known drinker, and she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. And kids do walk away, all kids do it at least once, I remember doing it as a kid, and being in a booth at a department store having my description announced over the PA system, and my parents coming to get me! This was in the 1960's!
I also disagree with people who say this was just a 'career achievment' Oscar for Jeff Bridges. I think this was one of his great performances.
I was thinking a lot about what I would do and decided you guys who said she was not able to forgive herself are right here.
I would not be able to forgive myself and that is the reason I would have to stop seeing Bad.
As about 4 year old wandering like that; I guess it was the case of bad judgment on Bad's part: he told the kid to explore thinking he would stay around, at the bar and the kid accidentally went out, was curious when saw all the shops in the mall around him, kept walking and then couldn't find his way back; more like inexperience with taking care of kids of that age than being drunk.
My mom got lost at that age for few hours, just because she went maybe 100 meters further from her house than she usually did; she figured everything around her looked unfamiliar, got scared and instead of turning back, she kept walking...it was a very small town and the police eventually found her. My grandparents were devastated and my mother remember fear she felt till this day (she is over 60 now)
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i agree. jean had her reasons for breaking it off, obviously. whether or not the punishment fit the crime, it was extremely traumatic for her and Bad's presence was only a reminder of that trauma.
but, any class jean might have had went completely out the window when she showed up at the concert. unbelievable. she has the nerve to flash that ring in his face and ask for an interview after crushing his heart by banishing him from her and her son's lives?
i had respect for her when Bad was at the door and she told him to leave even tho it hurt her and she knew it would hurt him. i mean, it was a bad situation all around, everyone got hurt, and she had to do what needed to be done. fair enough. but to take one final stab at him by showing up 16 months later like nothing happened...immature and selfish. Luckily for her, Bad was unusually graceful about the whole thing. I would have respected her wishes, ignored her and left. Bad hurt her and dealt with the consequences. well, when she closed the door in his face, she surely hurt him. then she makes it worse by treating him like a yo-yo.
kinda blew the movie for me.