Gwyneth Paltrow is terrific and Tim McGraw is good in this really awful country music movie, with a clunky, unbelievable script that packs the depth and nuance of a three-minute Nashville video. To call "Country Strong" clichéd is to imply that it makes any kind of sense.
It's understandable, however, that actress and mother Paltrow would burn her self-imposed "one movie a year" limit portraying troubled country superstar Kelly Canter.
She got to take singing lessons and learn the guitar. She got to show off a flawless body in miniskirts and glittery gowns. Many of her moments, such as composing a song for a Make-a-Wish kid on the spot, are warmly magical. OK, we get it, Paltrow got to play pretend in a whole new glamorous world when she wasn't texting the nannies.
But what was Nashville superstar McGraw, who plays her domineering husband/manager, thinking when he signed up for this implausible mess? This is like Derek Jeter starring in a baseball movie where they run the bases backward.
Almost everything is wrong in this groanfest, which was originally written with the Britney Spears breakdown of 2008 in mind. To wit: Female singer Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meister of "Gossip Girl") goes from stage-frightened mumbler to "the next Carrie Underwood" in two gigs. Then, still woozy from her post-rehab painkillers, Paltrow's character hops freight trains on her day off. But worst of all, Austin American-Statesman is quoted as calling Garrett Hedlund's Beau Hutton — Pat Green in a Brad Pitt mask — "the next Townes Van Zandt."
Is nothing sacred?
Much of "Country Strong" was filmed in Austin and Dallas, but if any movie deserves to be denied tax incentives, it's this one. Danny Trejo should take a machete to remaining prints. Where trains have long been a theme of country songs, this is just a train wreck.
"Country Strong"
Our grade: D+
Genres: Drama, Romance
Running Time: 117 min
MPAA rating: PG-13
Release Date: Jan 7, 2011
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