At the Movies with Fatwayne

I happen to enjoy mostly all types of music and country is right at the top of my favorites. That’s fortunate for me since it was the essence of this movie. In clearer terms, the plot of this film gives you the feeling that you have been down this road before and you most certainly have. Many times in fact.

We have an award winning country superstar known as Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) who can’t get over her addiction to drugs and alcohol. Her problems are compounded exponentially due to the fact that she fell and lost her unborn baby while performing under the influence. We find her in rehab and apparently doing well but much before her rehabilitation is complete, her husband and manager James Canter (Tim McGraw) springs her. During her stay she has made a friend of a worker at the facility named Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund). He is an aspiring country singer who performs at a local club in the evening after work. Beau and Kelly’s friendship becomes very solid over time and Beau really cares for her and her well being.

As Kelly’s manager, James is looking for an opening act for her comeback tour. He discovers an up and coming singer named Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) who happens to be working at the same club that Beau sings in. Through a series of circumstances both Beau and the very pretty Chiles wind up on the tour together. I mention the fact that Chiles is quite fetching since this becomes a point of contention between Kelly, James and Beau. Go figure!

This, being a musical drama, has to have some tension and we certainly get it. Kelly can’t seem to shake the terrible loss of her child and she still has a hankering for drugs and booze when things get tense. And things get quite tense quite often! Everyone in the movie has their problems but Beau is the strength of the group both morally and because of his caring for people and his willingness to help folks out in their time of need.

There are both moments of sadness as well as happiness in this saga and if it were not for the music I would call it a bummer. Kelly and Beau can really belt out a tune. Chiles is not too bad herself and her duets with Beau are very good.

As mentioned, the film leaves one with the feeling that you’re watching a movie that was put together using a formula that has been tried many times before. Despite this fact I found my toes tapping more that once as I listened to some lively country tunes. You could do a lot worse than Country Strong.

Rated  -  PG13  -

Fatwayne’s Rating  -  

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