There are few actors who are quite as reliable and immediately engaging as Jeff Bridges. It’s easy enough to accuse him of simply playing the same character type every time – a lovable, gruff older man with a wry sense of humor – but I’ve never seen him not put a craftsman’s twist on any single character he’s played thus far. His characters in True Grit and Crazy Heart are similar enough – an alcoholic bounty hunter working and bonding with a young woman vs an alcoholic folk singer bonding with a single mother and her son. The difference in his approach to these two characters is evident immediately in either film, and not just because of the difference in the eras that those films are set in.
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