Reviews, Interviews , News, Commentaries, My Top 5 Movies, Best-Of Lists, Filmmakers of Faith, Film ForumCountry Strong
Having the misfortune of coming on the heels of high-achieving, superbly acted films like Walk the Line and Crazy Heart, a country music-themed film like Country Strong has little chance of winning many fans. In spite of its title, this is a pretty weak film.
Borrowing the washed-up/alcoholic/formerly superstar comeback story of Crazy Heart, Country Strong tells the story of Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow), a Shania Twain-caliber country diva with a drinking problem. After a concert meltdown, in which a drunken fall off the stage resulted in the loss of the baby she was carrying, Canter does a stint in rehab. After rehab, she and husband/manager, James (Tim McGraw), embark on a comeback tour to reestablish her cred. For the tour's opening acts, James recruits two fresh-faced young talents whom he plans to groom into the next big things: Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester), a pop-tart beauty queen with a sweet naiveté, and Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund), heartthrob cowboy content to play honky tonks and sing love songs outside the limelight.
Most of the film consists of the assorted soap opera antics of the ensuing tour: Various parties sleeping with one another, marriages suffering, young love developing, Kelly relapsing and ruining yet another concert with a meltdown. It's chaos. Intermittently, we get quaint original songs performed by the three leading actors (using their own voices), serviceable each, if not on par with the Joaquin Phoenix-as-Johnny Cash standard.
It's odd that in a film about country music, the one lead actor who doesn't sing at all is the one with legitimate Nashville chops: Tim McGraw. He plays a dour, slightly sleazy but good-natured businessman instead. For her part, Paltrow pulls off the diva roll ...
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Comments
Roger Newton
It's Leighton Meester, not Messner
Allyson Searway
I loved the movie. Each of the four main characters was broken in his own way, each looking for fame and love to varying degrees, and each hurting himself and others in the process. Unlike Brett McCracken, I thought Paltrow's character was likeable. She was ill, scared, and unassertive (except when she was drunk, and then she was just plain mean) but she had a desire to please which was endearing. McGraw as her husband/manager was also likeable, a real feat considering that he was the closest thing to an antagonist in the film. While he was hurting his wife, pushing her too hard and blaming her too much, he was also fighting his own demons and trying to hold on to the good he could faintly remember. The love between Chiles and Beau was surprising (considering Beau's relationship with Kelly). But it was sweet, and I felt that their observation of the drama between Kelly and James drove them to choose something better for themselves in the end. Really, the music really wasn’t central to the movie at all; the music was just the setting.
Thomas R
Vacuous movies like this are the reasons why your readers should go to your local library (or church library, if you have one) and check out a copy of "Tender Mercies," with Robert Duvall. It is a beautifully told, Oscar-winning tale of a country singer who's hit bottom (via the bottle) and is more interested in coming back to a normal, life than coming back as any sort of country star. Seeking self respect and relationship with God and community are (or should be) what matters. All else is vanity.