Rating:  

Maguire Pictures, TVM, and Screen Gems.

Written by: Shana Feste.

When history looks back on “Country Strong”, I suppose it will be remembered as the time in Gwyneth Paltrow’s life where she inexplicably became a moderately successful country singer for a little while. After seeing the film, the silver lining in all of this is that the world got to see that Paltrow can sing, play some guitar, and be rather believable in that role. I’m not sure if that serves as a testament to her talent as an actress or just the cause and effect of this project, but I’ll grant you that Paltrow can play the part well.

And she played the role on stage at the Country Music Association Awards, promotional stops and eventually the Oscars, where the closing number, “Coming Home”, received a Best Original Song nomination. Once interest in “Country Strong” waned, so did Paltrow’s potential country music career and perhaps, had Shana Feste’s film been good – things would have sustained themselves a bit longer.

:Country Strong” casts Paltrow as Kelly Canter, a late-30′s something country star, who has fallen off the radar due to a debilitating and career-threatening addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol. Her husband and manager, James (Tim McGraw), is supportive but firmly believes that Kelly needs to get back on that stage and checks her out of rehab a month or so ahead of time. Unbeknownst to James, an up and coming country singer, Beau Hatton (Garrett Hedlund), has struck a chord with Kelly in rehab and Kelly insists on Beau opening her comeback tour. James is reluctant, senses the connection between Kelly and Beau, but when Beau agrees to work with James to ensure Kelly’s sobriety, James signs Beau up for the tour.

James also has set his eyes on the recent Miss Dallas, Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester), who is looking for a break into country music. When James attends a club gig he learns that Beau also has connections to her via her sister, a former girlfriend. Chiles struggles with stagefright and Beau, also in attendance with James, jumps on stage to help through her performance. James sees enough talent in Chiles once she calms down and he adds her to the tour as well.

As the tour rolls out to much hype and fanfare, a package reminding Kelly of her well-publicized miscarriage results in a meltdown involving massive ingestion of alcohol and an on-stage meltdown of epic proportions. The tour is in trouble and as Kelly spirals in and out of control, Beau starts to fall for Chiles, Kelly tries to have both Beau and James, and James is left having to hold it all together.

“Country Strong” is director and screenwriter Shana Feste’s second feature film, following the little seen 2008 drama, “The Greatest”. Not having seen that work, I am unclear whether Feste is a melodramatic writer and filmmaker by trade, or whether this project simply got away from her. But frankly, “Country Strong” is a mess. When it begins, you feel as if you have been dropped into the middle of a movie you missed the beginning of, and every twist and turn Feste tosses into the story is hackneyed and overwrought. Additionally, Paltrow, McGraw and the rest of the cast have some stilted and trivial dialogue to kick around. There are moments where characters basically play the “Yes, you did – No I didn’t” game and everyone spends the entire film trying to one up the other. Feste’s screenplay is exhausting and poorly conceived and akin to the depths of writing you find in direct-to-basic-cable fare.

And the shame of it all is that the four main actors have all bought in and are really trying to sell those words. In all honesty, the performances in and of themselves are not terrible, although Hedlund is rather miscast as the one-step-away-from-returning-to-rehab Southern country singer. I mean this is Sam Flynn from “TRON: Legacy” spitting a country drawl after all, and let’s just say versatility does not yet seem to be his strong suit.

I continue to admire Tim McGraw as an actor and he delivers as good a performance as he can, saddled with a distracting wig, and that aforementioned dialogue. Gwyneth Paltrow avoids camping it up as Kelly and credit must be given to her abilities in restraint because with a lesser talented actress, the performance could be have been memorable for all the wrong reasons.

“Country Strong” is a rough, unrestrained, melodramatic bore. The music, better than you might expect, is just an intermediate break from the reality that Shana Feste has written the souls out of her characters and there is simply no strength – country or otherwise – to be found anywhere in this 117 minute exercise in futility.

Should I See It?

I can see country music fans watching this and defending it the best they can.

You can hate this all you want, but do not hate it for the acting. Paltrow and McGraw, and to a lesser extent, Hedlund and Meester are trying hard here.

I mean no disrespect, but if you are a fan of Lifetime Movies, this is in right in your wheelhouse.

NO

At times it delves into embarrassingly bad territory, including a bizarre and laughable conclusion that comes from left field.

Directed poorly and the screenplay is in shambles. Shana Feste may not land another project anytime soon and if she does, I am not entirely sure she deserves one.

Those who do not like country music will probably detest this.