The Bad Hair Clue

I just saw Crazy Heart with the wonderful Jeff Bridges who looks like such a wreck in the early scenes as a down-on-his-luck country singer. His hair is oily, his belt's undone, his face looks as bad the face of Nick Nolte drinkin' again. But here's what I really liked: in every scene where his hair's a mess, bad things happen. When the hair is bad and the face gets all dour you just know he's going to start throwing up again. You just know it'll be cryin’ time again for Maggie Gyllenhal and her kid with the Cabbage Patch face. Then, when Jeff is nicely barbered and NOT sweating clear through his clothes, you know that kissing is up next and you think they just might make it after all. (You have to go to the movie to see if they do.)My one criticism: he seems to get sober in an awful hurry. We see only about 90 seconds of one of the doubtless hundreds of 12-step meetings he'd have had to attend and hey: the Steps deserve more credit than that. But my favorite part, besides getting the chance to see him work with Robert Duvall? Realizing that the great Jeff Bridges once had chickenpox  because there it is, as plain as day when he lies on top of Maggie: the little crater that marks him as one of us after all.