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Director Scott Cooper

Producers Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo, T-Bone Burnett

Production companies Informant Media, Butcher’s Run Films

US distribution Fox Searchlight Pictures

International distribution Fox International

US release date December 16

Worldwide gross to date n/a

Best picture chances

Crazy Heart’s best award chances are in the acting categories, especially for lead Jeff Bridges, whose transformative turn as down-and-out country star Bad Blake places him as a front runner for best actor. But the Academy has always treasured its US character dramas, and Duvall’s own Tender Mercies was a best picture nominee back in 1983.

What Screen said

“While Crazy Heart has the structure and some of the conventions of a TV movie, it is elevated to theatrical status by the direction of Cooper and a performance by Jeff Bridges which could be his best.

“Crazy Heart is a story of redemption, which has been told a thousand times before, but is infused with energy here by Cooper’s dialogue and his work with the actors. Bridges is sensational as Bad Blake, not just because he throws his soul into singing the original songs, but because he embodies the complexities of the man so completely — both charming and obnoxious, talented but prone to self-destruction, loving but ruined by addiction.”

Mike Goodridge