Born To Be Blue

Ethan Hawke has been around for a long time. he was one of the students in Dead Poets Society, and I loved Gattaca. But I hadn't seen him in anything for a long time when he burst back into view as the father in Boyhood for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He is back this year with a new movie with buzz, Born To Be Blue. In this film, Hawke plays Chet Baker, the famous jazz trumpeter from the 50's and 60's. Born To Be Blue is very meta. It opens in black and white sometime in the 1950's with Baker (Hawke) and his then wife. But then the director calls cut and it is really Baker playing himself in a movie and the time is the 1960's. The woman playing his wife (Carmen Ejogo) in the movie becomes his girlfriend. When they visit Baker's parents back on the farm in Oklahoma, his mother's first comment is, "You look just like Chet's ex-wife." His father's first comment is, "Are you here to dry out again?"

Chet Baker is in a loop that he can't get out of. He became a heroin addict in the 1950's and was still using when he died in 1988. This film is set around the time in 1966 when he was severely beaten and his teeth were all knocked out. He could no longer play the trumpet and begins a long comeback once he has some dentures. Born To Be Blue is bookended by concerts he gives in New York City with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie in the audience before and after his beating.

Born To Be Blue is not a happy movie. Baker's life doesn't have a happy ending, even though he was able to continue his jazz career. Hawke seems to be perfect for the role of Baker, a basically nice guy with a great musical gift but no impulse control. The film centers on both his struggle to regain the ability to play but also his struggle to stay clean with the help of his girlfreind. Ejojo, who played Coretta Scott King in Selma, is very good as the girlfriend who truly loves Baker but isn't willing to go down the drain with him. She is yet another English actor playing an American. They are everywhere and you don't even notice! Selma was hilarious since MLK, Coretta Scott King, LBJ and Wallace were all played by English actors. But I digress. Born To Be Blue is nice little movie and Ethan Hawke may get another Oscar nomination.