Friday, May 20, 2011

Country Strong

This movie has been on my "Need to See" check list for awhile. After a quick trip to Redbox, I was finally going to be able to check it off.



Let me start by saying overall, I really liked this movie.

All of the actors did their own singing. Gwyneth Paltrow (Kelly Canter) was great, Leighton Meester (Chiles Stanton) surprised me with her country twang, Garrett Hedlund (Beau Hutton) stood out for me--in a good way, and Tim McGraw (James Canter) who is the most established singer in the bunch didn't sing a note.

I thought overall the acting was well-done. However, in my opinion Hedlund was out acting everyone. The issue I had with Paltrow, while convincing as a recovering alcoholic, was not her acting (she did a great job as usual), but it was with her character. Kind of predictable. That was my only issue with her. Meester did a good job as beauty queen turned country singer. This was her "Look I can do something besides play Blair Waldorf and be good at it" role. McGraw on the other hand, well he left me a little confused. I don't know if it's because I'm used to seeing him play the nice guy, or what. (In this movie he is a butthead anything but nice)

This movie could have very easily fallen into the been there done that category. Main character has a problem, they reach their low point, and then somehow everything magically works out in the end. However, (and I won't give away the ending in case some of you still haven't seen it) the movie navigates itself away from the typical Hollywood fairytale ending.

All in all, if you like country music then go see this movie.

xoxo,

1 comment:

  1. I saw this in theaters and LOVED it! Garrett Hedlund is so gorgeous!

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