Kris Kristofferson had to get up and leave a screening of Crazy Heart long enough to regain his composure.

This new movie about a washed-up country singer has been written about by Willie Nelson (in Variety) and raved about by the usual suspects -- Dwight Yoakam, Gregg Allman and Jackson Browne among them -- all of whom have reached out to Crazy Heart's writer/director, Scott Cooper.

Cooper, 39, is an actor who decided to try his hand at writing and directing and came up with an almost-perfect movie first time out.

The alcoholic singer at the centre of Crazy Heart is played by Jeff Bridges, and the movie, loosely based on Thomas Cobb's 1987 novel, is a terrific rumination on love, loss and redemption.