Country Strong Review
Country Strong, the new film about country music, stars Academy Award Winner Gwyneth Paltrow, country music star Tim McGraw, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, and TRON: Legacy‘s Garrett Hedlund. Three out of the four actually sing in the film. One does not. Yup the one known for singing (McGraw) doesn’t.
Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, a falling country music star who is in a drug rehab centre after a DUI in Texas. Hedlund plays Beau Hutton, Kelly’s rehab sponsor, country singer and way too close of a friend to Mrs. Canter. McGraw is Kelly’s manager/husband James who thinks she’s ready for a comeback and gets her out of rehab sooner than Beau thinks is healthy.
After leaving rehab, James gets Kelly ready for her comeback in Texas and wants Chiles Stanton (Meester) to open for her. Kelly wants Beau to open because he’s talented and wants him there so she can stay clean. After seeing Chiles bomb on stage before Beau comes to her rescue, James takes both of them on the tour.
After falling off the wagon before her first performance, Kelly’s return to fame doesn’t seem possible if she can’t stay clean. Her drunken stupor continues and her next performance is cancelled altogether. Meanwhile Chiles and Beau are slowly gaining a following as the only act on tour who are getting on stage and giving the audience what they want.
Country Strong isn’t a great film. The first problem is that the movie kind of loses itself. What could be a movie about a down on her luck former star (think female Crazy Heart) or another movie about two up and coming stars and what it takes to make it in the world of today’s country music, ends up just combining both and adding in overlapping love stories. You don’t know who to root for. Do you want to see Kelly make a comeback or fall down again so Beau or Chiles can be the new star? Do you want to see the marriage between Kelly and James reconcile or Kelly get with Beau or Beau get with Chiles for that matter?
The film is way too long and really should have one less character. There are some funny moments between Beau and Chiles but the love triangle with James/Kelly/Beau almost makes Chiles character irrelevant. Or you can get rid of Beau and have Chiles being the fire under Kelly’s feet to resurrect her career.
That being said, the movie isn’t that completely terrible. Hedlund can surprisingly sing well and Meester plays the pageant queen/country pop crossover nicely (and looks adorable doing it). Paltrow proves she can sing, maybe not professionally, but good enough to be believable and McGraw gives a 180 degrees performance from his character in The Blind Side. This time around, McGraw’s James gets under your skin and you almost hate him for what he’s doing to his wife who he sees more as a commodity than a partner.
There are a few very good scenes also, especially the Make-a-Wish scene in the school where Paltrow sings for a little boy. And the ending is almost shocking. If you are paying enough attention you can see it coming, but even when it happens it is still surprising (and probably saves the film). Although, one woman at the screening did stand up and yell her distain for the ending.
Overall, fans of country music should enjoy it more than non-fans. There’s lots of singing and performances and Country Strong does show a bit of behind the scenes stuff that most people don’t get to see. But, in the end, what could be a really good in depth look at down and out celebrities and/or up and coming phenoms, turns into a long, over connected film.
Country Strong was released on January 7th, 2010.
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