A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This was an excellent production, well done, well acted and well produced with some creative cine-shots. But it is disturbingly dark. Lady Sings The Blues was similar but it didn't have the dark undercurrent of this piece. I never knew much about Chet Baker so I can't comment on its accuracy.(Judging from other reviews here, it is much more fiction than fact.) There is very effective intercutting of black and white (the past) and colour (the present.) The F-word is over used and the sex scenes are a bit too graphic, too long and too frequent. I was interested in the Canadian credits and to find out here much was shot in Sudbury and Espanola Ontario, hardly Hollywood North. Overall, it's a worthwhile watch. But expect a downer

Ethan Hawke is my favorite actor and I make it a point never to miss his movies. Just for that reason I know about 'Born to be Blue'. Where I live, this movie will never get screened in a movie hall, I'll never find a DVD and it will probably rarely be ever shown on TV. I guess even in Canada(Chet Baker's home country), not many have seen it yet. Such is the low profile of Ethan Hawke's art cinema role preferences that most of the times people come to know about these movies long after they are released. That trend is in-fact exemplified by this semi-fictional biopic about Chet Baker, the prolific jazz trumpeter, heroin addict and a free spirit.The story is a bit of a noir mixed with real life incidents. It plays like a heroin fueled jazz improvisio. Chet Baker, the artist on whose life it is based on, was a bit of an enigma himself. Starting way back in the heydays of jazz, Chet was a white artist making his mark in the black dominated music scene. Estranged from his father and addicted to substance abuse, he was on a lookout for love that was always around the corner but never enough. A typical self destructive musician. The biggest crest in the plot comes in the form of actual physical harm. Details are unclear but some rivalries lead to him getting beaten up and losing his ability to play the trumpet. We see a lot of movies about 'comebacks' but this one is real. It is not just about overcoming defeat or depression. It is about finding yourself being propelled by passion and passion alone to achieve something impossible.Ethan Hawke has done it again! Ever since Gattaca, I have found his performance mesmerizing. As Chet Baker, he embodies the pain and madness of a jazz artist so brilliantly that you would forget the flaws of the person and start loving him for what he is. Oh! and Hawke sings in his own voice in two of the songs. Soundtrack of the movie consists of some of the best Jazz standards and songs performed by David Braid. So, if you're a jazz aficionado then you should not miss it for the world. Carmen Ejogo is a fresh face from England and plays the persistent love interest of Chet in the film. This is her first performance that I've come across and she is scintillating. To say that her role is split in two parts is enough preview without spoiling the rest. I implore you to go watch this film. Go with a lover if you can because it is about heartbreaks more than personal struggles.

Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker is giving us a characterization of Chet Baker not as the person but surely as what it felt like to be Chet Baker. It is Chet Baker trying to understand himself and how his music was a projection of himself to which he was always striving to make more perfect. No human can do this therefore the heroin was an escape from himself.Carmen Ejogo positively shines as the two women in his life. As his girlfriend Elaine she tries to bring some sense of balance and grounding into his mixed-up life and realizes late into their loveship she will always be second to his music and drugs.This story is fascinating and painful. And this is where the viewer may experience compassion burnout because Baker is forever making the same mistakes. He cannot see this but you the viewer will see it and by movies end you just do not care anymore. Everything about this movie is right but by the end you are just at the point of being bored!Still this is a film worth every minute of viewing time.

Born to Be BlueThe key to being a successful musician/drug addict is picking the most lucrative genre in which to perform.Unfortunately, the strung-out artist in this drama chose Jazz.Failing to pay his drug debts, jazz heartthrob Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke) has his front teeth kicked in in front of his new girlfriend (Carmen Ejogo). Unable to play his horn he must now answer to a parole officer who requires him to find a real job.While he agrees to undergo drug treatment, Chet refuses to give-up performing, even though his new affliction leaves him sounding like an amateur.While Hawke turns in a remarkable portrayal of the embattled Baker, the Baker he is depicting isn't the real Chet Baker, but a fictional account of the addict that uses his bumpy history and embellishes it with substantial poetic license. Besides, junkies make the worst fans because they never leave after the concert. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca