It’s a story as old as this business we call show: that of the great entertainer haunted by demons so strong he or she can’t help but fall down the rabbit hole and take us – ever their captive audience – down with them.
In Shana Feste’s tremendously anticipated (by me) Country Strong, that most captivating, intriguing, maddening creature we can’t help but love (and dislike a tad) is country superstar Kelly Canter. Kelly, known to all as the Grammy-winning Belle of Bristol, is best remembered as the sunniest, shiniest thing, but that was before she crashed and burned on stage during a big concert. Now, she’s dimming – a shadow of her former self struggling to cast herself in a light all her own – and as played by my girl Gwyneth Paltrow, she’s vulnerable, flawed, angel-voiced, “stronger than all of this,” yet so...not.
G.P., it must be said, has her job cut out for her, for Feste doesn’t make it easy for her or her cast mates (which include a never-more-actor-y Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester) to inhabit a fully realized world.
Paltrow, though, rises to the challenge, and so do her supporting players, especially Hedlund, who is a complete revelation and the heart of Country Strong. His rootsy, hipster-y look and well-suited-for-the-genre vocals come together tremendously, and give his honky-tonk singer/rehab-facility orderly an air of authenticity that lends the movie a much-needed boost in key scenes.
Speaking of rehab, that is where Hedlund’s Beau Hutton meets Ms. Kelly Canter.
She’s there getting herself sorted out following that meltdown I alluded to earlier. It happened about a year ealier. Kelly was in Dallas performing...she was pregant, five months along, and also drunk. Some time during the show, she tripped and fell, losing the baby.
Her star was tarnished, perhaps forever and irreparably, but on the day we meet Kelly, her husband/manager James (McGraw) marches into her room at the recovery center, walking in on his wife and Beau (who’d been writing a song together, engaged in a flirtation) and announces she’s leaving rehab to embark on a three-date encore tour.
It’s her big comeback, y’ see, but is she ready?
Paltrow and Beau say no, but Kelly says OK, she’ll go along with it because she’s scared if she doesn’t she’ll lose no, not her career, but her husband.
Opening for her will be Chiles Stanton (Meester, channeling enough of her Blair Waldorf persona from TV’s Gossip Girl and mixing that bravado with enough up-and-comer insecurity to emerge on the winning side of an underwritten role). Chiles is a former beauty queen determined to make it big in Nashville. She’s got James on her side but not Beau, who dismisses her as easily as he pays her consequence), and, with her Eve Carrington-esque quality, she makes Kelly even more jittery than she already is, the poor thing.
The whole idea of this comeback that’s being mounted for Kelly is so misguided you’ll question real hard why James is pushing for it so.
In fact, you’ll wonder why Kelly’s so messed up (at her worst, she’s a drunken mess, dancing on dive-y bar tables and being all slutacious; at her best, she’s transcending a cynical photo op, making music on the spot for a Make-A-Wish kid), why Beau wants to protect her so much, and, more importantly, why if this is supposed to be a movie about this woman’s journey it is Hedlund who does most of the heavy lifting...and when, just when is Paltrow taking to the stage, already.
After all, that is what we want to see – the GOOPster singing her little heart out. Which she does beautifully, hanging on to her accomplished twang like a natural and oozing a stage presence that’s been talked about quite a bit this awards season.
My love of what this movie meant, for Paltrow and my undying fandom of her, has been well chronicled.
Alas, Country Strong ultimately disappoints in that it gives the Oscar winner much too little meat to bite into and chew (holy melodrama, she sure is asked to cry a lot) that by the time her big moment finally arrives – which she beyond-owns – you’ll be as emotionally drained as Kelly Canter. As Beau sings in the end, timing is everything, and this movie suffers from a lack of it and focus.
The performances elevate this one, as does the music (with which I’m obsessed), so keep that in mind when you go see this one, and you should give in to it and go see it, alright, so this weekend you better get, y’ read.
My Rating **1/2
Photo: Screen Gems.
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