The idea of an older, grizzled man who’s set in his ways but trying to get back to the glory of his younger days is not exactly new in Hollywood. There have been countless stories of redemption being sought and found by individuals who have led a life up until that point of stubborn refusal to change their ways, no matter who it’s honking off or who they wind up alienating – from friends to spouses to parents to children – only to eventually realize they’re utterly alone and miserable and so seek to mend fences and repent. It takes a good script and talent both in front of and behind the camera to make these stories rise above the level of “treacle” though.
So thank goodness this one stars one of my favorite actors, Jeff Bridges. Bridges stars in Crazy Heart as a Bad Blake, country musician who’s in the second half of middle-aged and is feeling the years and all the troubles piling up on top of him. Shuffling from bar to bar, he’s coasting on momentum at this point after some early success but finding little to keep him going beyond the need to maintain a minimal income. In comes a reporter doing a feature story on him, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who eventually becomes romantically involved with Blake and who is the first person in a long time to motivate him to do better and seek not only stability personally but a new success professionally.
The Poster
Clearly the campaign is putting Jeff Bridges up front and center and this poster does just that. An obviously grizzled Bridges – you can tell by the unkempt hair and the grey, thin beard – looks to the middle distance while holding his guitar up to him.
It’s simple but I like it. The solid black background makes for an uncluttered image and draws the focus to Bridges, which is exactly the intent. And the slight…roughness to the image makes it look like he’s sitting in sunlight. Finally, the typeface used for the names and title treatment are clearly evocative of a Western type of feel.
The Trailer
The one trailer that was created is moving and clear in its goal of how it wants to sell the movie. We meet Bridges character at the same time we meet that of Gyllenhaal, who plays a reporter doing a story on him. He’s clearly a down-on-his-luck musician of some fame and we see a few scenes of him at various bars performing his songs.
She, of course, falls in love with him as the story progresses and there also, of course, is a kid involved. Her hope in him inspires to get back on the horse and write a new song and toward the end we see him on a massive concert stage, apparently having earned the redemption he was due for.
Also prodding him along is his father, played by Robert Duvall, and his performance combined with Bridges’ may just set a cinematic record for laid back, naturalistic portrayals of grizzled middle-aged to older men. Not saying that’s a bad thing – not at all – but I’m saying we may have a new high water mark on our hands.
Online
The official website for the movie opens by playing the trailer, which is worth re-watching if you haven’t done so in a while. Next to that at the top is a “Synopsis” that gives a very brief overview of the plot, which lays out very much the same story we see in the trailer. You can also listen to the “Featured Song,” an original composition from T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham that’s labeled as being the theme from the movie.
Below that is the usual mix of goodness from Fox Searchlight. You have
- a scrolling Photo Gallery
- a Featured Video of Bingham performing his theme song
- a stream of mentions of the movie from Twitter
- a Featured Review that actually takes you to a content page of multiple review – with links
- a Meet the Cast & Crew section that, instead of trying reinvent the wheel, just links to everyone’s IMDb page
- a Film News section that contains steady updates about the movie
- an In the Headlines section that just links out to outside coverage of the movie
- a Related Links section that points to the official websites, MySpace pages and other information on the principles on the film
I continue to be impressed with the websites Fox Searchlight puts together. Not only is this everything I need to know about the movie, but it shows that outside opinions are just as important as official messaging.
With the official site being so sociable, the Facebook Fan Page almost becomes redundant. Not to say it isn’t well done – there are great updates, photos and videos there – but usually this sort of things fills in a gap that’s left by the official site. But that gap doesn’t exist in this case.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
Not seeing much of either. There was a bit of online advertising that I came across but mostly what I’ve seen in the last few weeks have been “For Your Consideration” ads that are shooting for Oscar nominations. The lack of general-audience ad support alright to some extent since there’s been plenty of…
Media and Publicity
While there had been some buzz around it before this, the movie first appeared on most people’s radars when Searchlight acquired it in July of this year, first announcing it would be aiming for a Spring, 2010 release. But the word of mouth the film was generating at that point appeared too good to let go to waste and so it was moved up to December, largely in the hope that it would then be better positioned for a run at the Oscars, particularly Bridges’ performance.
Indeed a fair amount of the press after November, for example this New York Times story (11/18/09), position it as this year’s “movie out of nowhere,” the kind of film that has just kind of hunched along until it emerges as potentially one of the best of the year. There was also plenty of attention, given the focus of the movie on the music, on T Bone Burnett (New York Times, 12/6/09) and what an interesting and eclectic career he’s had.
Overall
There’s a lot to like about this campaign, especially the trailer, poster and website that were created. Adding to the fact that they’re all fairly brand-consistent with each other you have the notion, at least this is how I see it, that they were all created pretty quickly. It’s only been five or six months since Searchlight announced the acquisition of the film and all the material was released around late October or so, meaning they were working on a pretty tight timeline as, especially after they shifted gears to achieve a December release.
I think what I like about the campaign in general is that it doesn’t try to be overly slick or flashy – something that keeps with the general demeanor of the central character in the film. The poster simply speaks of a man with a lot on his mind and the trailer reinforces that. There isn’t a lot of sizzle in the campaign, just a relaxed self-assured feeling that does a lot to make the film seem attractive to those who might not be hip to the whole publicity effort that’s gone along with the paid, formal effort.
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