The soundtrack of marriage

Jake and I went to the see the film Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, over the weekend, and I think it’s the first movie we’ve ever seen together that we both actually liked.  We rarely, if ever, agree on a movie. Jake is a particularly tough critic. He thinks every film — from Crash to Lord of the Rings to Adventure Land — is “cheesy.”  I think it’s because he’s such a purist in his soul, any suggestion of pretense or emoting on film — you know, acting — turns him off. He’d rather be outside shoveling something anyway.

But we both really liked Crazy Heart. Not, it must be noted, for the plot — which is the ol’ cliche narrative in which a down-on-his luck, alcoholic music star — Bad Blake — meets and falls for a winsome and conspicuously MUCH YOUNGER woman capable of unlocking his bottled-up potential. Gag me with a pitch fork.

It’s obvious this film was written and directed by a dude. Not only is there an almost offensive age difference between the actors but you can practically smell Bad Blake’s bourbon-laced vomit breath as he goes in to kiss his otherwise polished and professional girlfriend. C’mon!!! Like we’re supposed to believe someone as put together as Maggie Gyllenhaal would fall for  someone who spends half the movie throwing up in trash cans and walking around with his belt unfastened (not because he’s a perv, but because he’s too bloated from the booze to fit his jeans anymore).

No, we liked the film because of the music. The soundtrack is made up of tracks that have served as a backdrop to our entire relationship.  You know how every marriage has a soundtrack; a style of music you both bond over? For some, it’s 60s folk like Bob Dylan. For others, 70s soul or 80s classic rock. Ours is outlaw country. I never thought I even liked country before I met Jake, but it’s the music we fell in love to, it’s the music we still dine to every night, and this is the first film we’ve ever seen where “our music” takes center stage: Waylon Jennings,  Buck Owens, George Jones, Kitty Wells, even newcomer Ryan Bingham. I don’t even listen to outlaw country on my own — I gravitate toward electronic music or hard psychedelic rock like Queens of the Stone Age, while Jake, bless him, tends to go for noxious “new country” (though he’ll deny it if you ask him!).

But when we’re together, it’s only outlaw country.

There’s a scene in the film where Bad Blake is gearing up to perform at an outdoor arena and he’s walking through the asphalt-covered back lot where gleaming trucks and trailers are parked and men are hauling around rigging equipment. Waylon Jenning’s classic “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?” comes blasting through the theater in surround sound. It was the first time I’ve ever heard this song LOUD and I swear it almost took my breath away. Jake squeezed my hand. We looked at each other and I knew he was thinking the same thing: THIS is a kick-ass song.

Tagged as: crazy heart