By: debbie lynn elias
As I left the screening room after the final credits rolled by for COUNTRY STRONG, my mind was playing the lyrics “I was country, when country wasn’t cool.” And all I could think was that had any self-respecting true “country” star witnessed what I had just seen and heard, they could only think one thing – if COUNTRY STRONG is “country”, then it still ain’t cool. And if this film is about the inner strength and overcoming heartbreaks/disaster that the world has come to associate with country music and the country community, COUNTRY STRONG sorely misses its mark; something that pains me to write, as not only do I admire writer/director Shana Feste’s first film – “The Greatest” – but I have long appreciated both Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow. On the up side, however, Paltrow and McGraw turn in individually solid performances that are buttressed by a stellar turn from Garrett Hedlund.
Kelly Canter is the epitome of a country star. Look in the dictionary under “country star” and you will undoubtedly find her picture. Big hair, big voice, sequined glittery clothes, Grammy upon Grammy, platinum upon platinum record, a legion of faithful fans and personal catastrophe and heartache that has become media fodder. As if lifted from a page out of today’s news, Kelly has been in rehab for almost a year after an incident where she plummeted 10 feet from a stage during a concert in Dallas. Sadly, she was 5 ½ months pregnant at the time and lost the baby. Feeling sympathetic for her, one’s heart begins to ache, believing that this devastating loss is what drove her to drink and in search of help. But, such turns out to not be the case as we eventually learn that she had a .19 blood alcohol level while performing and it was her own drunkenness that caused the accident. Nevertheless, she has been in rehab, getting stronger but needier, not to mention getting close with her “sponsor” Beau, himself a wannabe future country singer and songwriter.
And while Kelly heals, her manager James has been chomping at the big to get his cash cow back on stage and back on tour. But what’s this? James isn’t just Kelly’s manager. He’s her husband. One would never suspect given his seeming indifference to her when he comes to collect her from rehab one month before her scheduled release date. (And we all know what happens when people leave rehab early, don’t we?) Reluctantly, Kelly agrees to leave and go back out on tour but with one stipulation – she wants Beau as her opening act. James, however, has another stipulation- he wants a pretty young thing named Chiles Stanton to be the opening act. An alleged former beauty queen turned country singer, Chiles has the voice (and the looks), but a severe case of stage fright makes it impossible for even James to ignore Kelly’s demand. So, he pulls both Chiles and Beau into the tour.
As they prepare for their first major concert, Kelly is popping pills and drinking vodka, worrying about keeping Beau as her own boy toy, but wanting to cling to James as both manager and husband, while James worries more about pretty little Chiles and how good are ticket sales. Needless to say, disaster strikes as Beau is proven right – Kelly shouldn’t have left rehab – and her comeback tour starts to sink before Kelly can even sing one song. Can Kelly pull it all together and come back COUNTRY STRONG for her Dallas show? Will James fall for Chiles or fall back in love with Kelly? Will Kelly lean more on Beau? Will Chiles steal the show?
We all know Gwyneth Paltrow can sing. We heard her in “Duets” with a memorable performance of “Cruisin” with Huey Lewis. It was magical. But can she sing country? You bet and its because of her singing talent that the script should have had more of her singing and less of her falling down drunk, because the latter – albeit done well – gets old really quickly. As Kelly, when Paltrow sings, she shines. When she acts, she is memorable. But put that together with this particular film and everything is forgettable, which is a shame because she brings this great vulnerability and innocence to the character, both of which get mired down in some hokey dialogue, uneven storytelling and extremely bad script continuity and editing.
I am a long time fan of Tim McGraw as both a recording artist and performer and actor. As James, he wears his heart on his sleeve, giving this no nonsense businessman a little more depth than one would expect in the character. Unfortunately, that emotion is too rare and when visible, is not used to its best advantage to create a meaningful connection with Paltrow, thus further detracting from two fine performances.
As Chiles Stanton, Leighton Meester is not only a country Barbie, but an annoying country Barbie. You connect with her, but you don’t like her. The real standout though is Garrett Hedlund. He steals your heart and the film as Beau. Masculine, more than a modicum of integrity, not only can he sing, but he has layers of emotion that not only blend with each of the other principals, but with the music. And his voice…let’s just say, I wouldn’t mind an album from him in the near future. If there is one truly wonderful memorable aspect of COUNTRY STRONG, it is Garrett Hedlund.
Written and directed by Shana Feste, given the excellence of character construction and emotional connective tissue of her first film, “The Greatest”, I am surprised that COUNTRY STRONG falls short on so many fronts. A subject that has built in emotional and dramatic gravitas up the wazoo, the dialogue falls short and the characters, but for Beau, are too one dimensional, lacking connectivity not only with each other and the audience. There is a permeating shallowness to each character as the story itself as it lacks completeness, being riddled with holes in relationships and backstory. Even more disappointing is the ending, which I will not reveal, but suffice to say, there was a point at which the film should have ended and had it done so, would have been glorious and energetic, capturing the very essence of the term “COUNTRY STRONG”. But for whatever reason, Feste chose to keep going and going, killing any positivity quicker than a bad chorus lyric.
Given the ending and a multitude of other blatant “WTF” visuals, I have to question editors Carol Littleton and Conor O’Neill, which pains me given the consistent excellence of Littleton’s prior works. Was anyone actually watching the film as it was cut? I stopped counting the number of times Paltrow has black mascara streaming down her face, covering her face all smeared, and then she looks up and without having wiped her face, she is clean as a whistle. Same with her hair. With many of the individual scenes, one has to question how many takes were used to achieve a final edit of what we see on screen. I have never seen hair go from big and poofy and curly to flat as a pancake back to poofy and perfectly curly all in the same song. Amazing. This is why God invented hair spray people – get it poofy and keep it poofy. Get it flat and keep it flat. Distracting to a fault. Thankfully, John Bailey (who just happens to be married to editor Littleton) was on board as cinematographer and raises the bar on an otherwise unremarkable film.
Where Feste does excel is with the selection of music. Aided by Michael Brook and music supervisor Randall Poster, not only are there some recognizable songs, but new ones. Musical performances by Paltrow, Meester and Hedlund, although it sounded like all of Hedlund’s songs were being sung in half-time, slowed to a tempo slower than the mating time of a snail.
COUNTRY STRONG is like a dramatic washing machine – the laundry load hasn’t had sufficient pre-soak and whites are mixed with colors, resulting in a bleeding into monotone bland.
Kelly Canter – Gwyneth Paltrow
James Canter – Tim McGraw
Beau Hutton – Garrett Hedlund
Chiles Stanton – Leighton Meester
Written and directed by Shana Feste.
