Jeff Bridges' Oscar Showdown in Crazy Heart

You know, a has-been has to do degrading things to make money, while trying to repair his troubled relationship with the child he abandoned, as a good woman overcomes all doubts and aims to save his soul (and her own).

It's also his Tender Mercies (after all, Robert Duvall coproduced and costars) mixed with a bit of his True Grit, the one about an over-the-hill lawman rallying for last-chance heroics.

Those last two inevitably enough won Oscars for their leading actors, and Crazy Heart will too. It's a valedictory-type formula that can't lose, especially when you let your weary heart show and mumble a lot!

Except for Mickey Rourke.