Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter in this story of a superstar country singer in a drink-fuelled, depression meltdown. The audience crash-lands into Canter’s story as she experiences, what we are told, is her umpteenth visit to a rehab clinic.
While there she builds up a not-so platonic relationship with care worker Beau Hutton (Hedlund), who helps her towards recovery. Hutton is a budding country singer-songwriter and he and Canter share their love of music while she is battling her demons.
However, Canter’s recovery is cut short as her husband James, played admirably by Tim McGraw, arrives to take her out of rehab and kickstart her career by organizing a three-date comeback tour.
Canter’s husband is also her manager and a record producer. He realises Beau’s potential and asks him to come on the road to look out for his wife and also to see if he can make the jump up to the big leagues of stadium-performance stardom.
To add a final character twist to the plot, we are introduced to young Chiles Stanton (Meester), a budding female country star. She is rough around the edges, but when Beau helps her through a performance, she is also brought on the tour.
These four characters and the rather complicated love rectangle that develops between them are the basis of this watchable film.
In a time when celebrity meltdowns are a dime a dozen with the very public collapses of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Charlie Sheen and many others, this film taps into the zeitgeist of this modern pop-culture phenomenen.
Paltrow’s portrayal of Canter as a deeply unhappy woman is very good. She conveys a character at odds with herself and what she would hope to be; but then this is the actor who delivered such steady turns in 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'Sliding Doors' and 'Shakespeare in Love'. In other words, she’s always been good, but she has drifted a little in recent years with a string of decidedly average movies. This film is very much a re-declaration of her abilities.
What makes her character interesting is that Canter is not a young, twenty-something having a breakdown, but an established artist who is losing control. Garrett Hedlund will draw plaudits as the upcoming star for his performance as the hearthrob Beau; and to be fair, he is fine in the role.
However, real-life country singer McGraw is more impressive. He delivers a layered performance of a man torn between maintaining his love for his out of control wife and a man trying to keep his business – his wife’s music – on the tracks. Less is more from McGraw as he eschews the opportunity to compete with Paltrow’s performance, but merely compliments it.
The direction and cinematography are standard fare, but the story does keep one reasonably interested for the most part. This is down to the love rectangle and interest in how Paltrow’s character will cope with a return to the limelight.
Fans of country music will enjoy ‘Country Strong’ as this genre of music frames the tale. Paltrow also manages to deliver in the singing deparment.
What prevents the film from competing with top-tier depictions of celebrity excess, such as ‘Crazy Heart’ or ‘The Wrestler’, are two things: some extremly corny romantic scenes and an underlying predictability to the plot. So much so in part it feels like it’s a paint-by-numbers tale.
That said, the close of the film does throw up a surprise, which redeems it somewhat.
Tadhg Peavoy
