By Peter Covino

 Entertainment Editor

Put a bottle of whiskey in a veteran actor’s hand, teach ’em how to sing a country song, and you probably pretty much got a sure-fire Oscar nomination.

When the actor is Jeff Bridges, who has been nominated four times for the big prize (The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman and The Contender) you have the man to beat in the Best Actor category for 2009.

Bridges will deserve the award if he wins it in March (he has already won the Golden Globe for best actor as well as the same award from the Screen Actors Guild). If he doesn’t win at this point, it will be a bit of an upset.

Bridges has all the right moves in Crazy Heart, playing Bad Blake, a hard-drinking, country music star whose time has come and gone.

Blake isn’t just a hard drinker — he is a full blown alcoholic. And his days of playing sold out arenas are behind him, or he never quite got that big to begin with.

His career consists of playing small bars in small towns and even worse, the lounge of a bowling alley. He seems more concerned not about the latest paycheck from playing that bowling alley, but that his tab at the bar is not being taken care of by the bowling alley management.

Bridges may be channeling country great Hank Williams for this actor tour de force, but it’s Kris Kristofferson that you will think of when Bridges takes the stage and sings. He looks a lot more like that silver-haired country singer as well.

Blake’s life would continue to be a series of one-night stands (in every sense of the word) if he
didn’t meet a younger woman reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who interviews him a few times over a couple of days. She admires the drunken, but talented man, and the admiration soon grows to something a lot stronger for both of them.

But Bad (he says he will never go by his real first name until it is put on his tombstone) is seemingly too far gone. He won’t stop chain smoking or drinking and eventually, in one poignant scene late in the film, it causes them to go their separate ways.

Director Scott Cooper, who also wrote the screenplay, doesn’t always quite keep Crazy Heart from being predictable. And while a few scenes are less than inspiring, sometimes it is right on the money.

And Bridges, whether he is on stage, or drinking, never misses a beat.
Bridges gets a lot of help in the support role as well from Colin Farrell, another unlikely actor turned country music star.

Farrell plays Bad Blake’s protege, Tommy Sweet. And while Blake is stuck playing the bowling alleys, Sweet plays the arenas. Some of the many musical highlights (the country soundtrack with original songs by T Bone Burnett is great) include Farrell and Bridges singing onstage together.

Also, Academy Award winner Robert Duvall is a bonus. He shows up a few times as Blake’s friend and former partner.

The motion picture industry has a lengthy list of actors (and actresses) winning the top award for playing country stars (Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner’s Daughter) and alcoholics (Ray Milland, Susan Hayward, Nicolas Cage). Add one more to the list with Bridge’s memorable performance.
Crazy Heart, already playing in several cities across the country opens in Central Florida, Friday.

Critic's rating: B

Rated: R for language, adult situations.