Country Strong

As a relatively new fan of country music, I must say I was disappointed in this movie. It had its moments, but overall I cannot recommend it. The clumsy, disconnected screenplay was probably the worst aspect of the film as it gave the actors little to work with. There didn't seem to be much continuity to the film, but just a bunch of scenes thrown together. Aside from her singing the title song, there was nothing about the main character (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) that was remotely strong, and the ending was hardly inspiring in that regard. I cringed through the first half of the movie, which seemed to go overboard in portraying her flaws and failures, and wondered how much lower she would get before she turned things around. It was quite depressing, with no "payoff" at the end to make it worthwhile.

What the movie does have is some pretty good music. Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester all sang quite well and almost made this movie worth seeing. Hedlund gave the best acting performance, and Meester wasn't bad. But I was quite disappointed in Tim McGraw's effort and feel it was the weakest of his budding career. I don't know if it was because he was playing an insensitive jerk as opposed to the nice guys of his previous roles, but he seemed strained and unnatural. And as well as Paltrow sang, and as much as I have enjoyed previous work by her, she was unconvincing in her portrayal of a country superstar (limited in part by the poor script, as noted earlier). The charisma just wasn't there.

Seeing a movie like this makes me appreciate well-written and well-acted movies all the more. They have a unifying theme that takes you somewhere and ties things together at the end (unless, of course, there is to be a sequel). "Country Strong" just didn't have what it takes, but ending up looking more like a direct-to-video film. It should have been titled "Country Pathetic."

I feel like this movie has potential to be good. The actors are obviously trying but the writer/director just doesn't deliver which completely throws off the intentions of each character. What I mean is, it's bad enough that the music is astonishingly boring, but that no character is given any development makes the movie even worse. Therefore Gwyneth Paltrow comes off as whiny because why she started drinking is never explained, Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester appear pretentious because they have no history to explain their on-off minor rivalry, and Tim McGraw appears to just be bossy because there's no push for him to make Gwyneth Paltrow's character a more popular star. I feel no sympathy for the characters because there is no real story behind any of them which makes the long scenes feel even longer. When something thin is being stretched out beyond it's limit, it shows by either becoming looser or ripping apart. This movie doesn't completely rip apart, but it comes terribly close (emphasis on "terrible"). I do not recommend this movie to anyone, especially country music fans.

This film is about an alcoholic country singer going on a come-back tour, along with two talented support singers.

"Country Strong" could have been a captivating drama, but sadly is not. Surely the music is very good, even if I am not a fan of country music, I still enjoyed it a lot. I think the problem lies with poor plot development. Kelly Canter's marriage problems, her reasons for soaking herself up with alcohol and her career downfall are not well explained. Strangely, the lives of the supporting characters Beau and Chiles are better explained and engagingly told. As a romance film, there is an over-reliance on sex scenes and not enough sweet romance. At one point I thought it was making wholesome characters less than decent. The ending could have had a greater impact, but it is shrouded in confusion due to character underdevelopment and underwhelming story telling. Something's wrong with "Country Strong", which is quite a pity.

I'm not really a country music fan at all but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It's a superb character driven film that goes way beyond any musical persuasion. The performances are remarkable and I can see why they had to release this for awards consideration. Tim McGraw was shockingly good (he can really act!)and Gwyneth Paltrow delivers a better performance than Jeff Bridges did in his Oscar win of a year ago. (Don't get me wrong, Bridges was great but Gwyneth really brought it in this role) In fact, this film tops "Crazy Heart" by quite a large margin. You really care about these characters and events of the film really throw you because it's anything but predictable.

Tim McGraw doesn't sing in the movie. He and Gwyneth sing a duet but it is played over the credits. Tim's acting continues to improve. He is obviously ready for starring roles. Maybe a Western? The real surprise is Garrett Hedlund who all but steals the movie. He has a terrific baritone & should definitely do an album. Either a cover album or a CD of original music. Leighton Meester also does well in a supporting role. Ms. Paltrow delivers a fully realized performance as a country Judy Garland type. Robert Altman has already covered much of this territory in his masterpiece Nashville which contains a character based loosely on Loretta Lynn. Country Strong is a more updated version. The soundtrack is excellent.