The North Idaho lifestyle has its benefits. Diverse moviegoing is not one of them. Some of the best movies of any given year never play in our area, and many take their sweet time getting here.

“Crazy Heart,” the indie drama starring Oscar hopeful Jeff Bridges, finally opened in Spokane last week after months of media buzz.  Bridges stars as has-been country singer Bad Blake, a raging alcoholic who survives on the crumbs of a few good, sad songs. It’s a performance that will no doubt earn Bridges a long overdue Academy Award.

Blake travels hundreds of miles in his beaten truck to play half-empty bowling alleys and dive bars. Still a great musician (in between puking up his whiskey meals), Blake hasn’t written anything new in years. Too bad, because former protégé Tommy Sweet (a terrific Colin Farrell) has hit the big time and wants the industry’s best drunken songwriter to pen a few hits.

The relationship between Blake and Sweet is an interesting one. A lazy filmmaker would make the young superstar an obnoxious antagonist, but writer/director Scott Cooper develops a strained but ultimately respectful dynamic. Despite his success, Sweet remains loyal to the man who taught him “real country.”

The focus of “Crazy Heart” is Blake’s budding relationship with a journalist (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, also Oscar nominated this year). Despite the age difference, Bridges and Gyllenhaal have a real chemistry, and their relationship is believably doomed. Lesson to single mothers: Never leave your young child with a down-on-his-luck entertainer.

Those well-versed in the rags-to-redemption musical biopic will know every beat of “Crazy Heart” before it happens, but the performances elevate the material. Bridges is at his best, bringing so much life to the beaten-down Blake. Here’s a guy who can sing and strum along to a sad song and make you believe every syllable. You don’t need to be a fan of this type of music to be impressed by Bridge’s presence as a performer.

Speaking of terrific performances, Best Picture nominee “An Education” is anchored by the best female performance of 2009. Newcomer Carey Mulligan is luminous as Jenny, a teenager in 1960s London who gets lost in the charm of a much-older, sophisticated bachelor (Peter Sarsgaard). After cleaning up on the awards circuit, the film opened in Coeur d’Alene last weekend.

Jenny spends nearly all of him time studying and preparing for her application to Oxford. Her father (Alfred Molina) doesn’t really allow her to do anything else. She loves art, good books and French music, although her dad doesn’t see much point in extra-curricular activities that don’t score well on the college entrance interview.

Then she meets David, a debonair older man with seemingly easy access to the fast-paced lifestyle she so craves. His charm even works on Jenny’s father, a traditional man who wants the best education for her daughter… or a rich husband to take care of her. Whichever comes first, really.

This isn’t a particularly unconventional story of young naivety and misguided love. Red flags surround David and his social crowd from the very beginning. Adapting a Lynn Barber memoir, screenwriter Nick Hornby gets a lot of mileage out of the social landscape of the 1960s. Jenny is surrounded by people who know her options are limited. To her father, an older man with money is her ticket to success, no matter where his money comes from.

Mulligan, despite this being her first starring role, has the presence of an old Hollywood star. She shows real charisma and maturity, especially impressive for a character that is also so obviously emotionally immature.  Her spark, teamed with the reliable abilities of Sarsgaard and Molina, help keep “An Education” from stumbling into over-familiarity.

Directed by Lone Scherfig, “An Education” is a subtly gorgeous looking film executed to near perfection. The only stumble happens in the last five minutes or so, when the movie wraps a bit too conveniently. Still, Mulligan still makes her character arc work, making “An Education” the perfect addition the Oscar’s expanded Best Picture race.

If only “Avatar” would drop a few of its screens so more movies like it can have a chance around here.

Both films: A-
First Appeared in The Coeur d’Alene Press.