Discovery

Release date: 19 February 2010

Running time: 115 mins

Director: Scott Cooper

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall

The great Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for his lifetime-best performance in Crazy Heart - the film's superb music also earned an Oscar for Best Song.

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a drunken old country music singer scraping a living in backwater bowling alleys and third-rate piano bars. His fleeting fame behind him, the best Bad can hope for is to open a big concert for his former protege, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), who - unlike his mentor - managed to become rich and famous. One gig blurs into the next until one night in Santa Fe, Bad falls for local journalist Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a single mother with a few regrets of her own. In his attempt to find salvation with Jean, Bad is forced to face his demons and confront a life of regrets. As he pours his private sorrow into the best songs he's ever written, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man's crazy heart.

Screenplay: Scott Cooper

You should see it because: Jeff Bridges' performance is as honest and resonant as the aching country music his character plays.

See it if you liked: The Big Lebowski (1998), Walk The Line (2005), A Prairie Home Companion (2006)