I saw this film in early 2011and loved it to bits and pieces so I knew I needed to blog about it. First of all, I love Gwyneth Paltrow and always have, so it wasn’t that hard to convince me to check this film out. To no surprise I’m so happy I did. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me wish I had even a morsel of vocal abilities just so I could spend my days singing the lyrics to several of the amazing songs featured in the film, but most of all it just simply reminded me of why I so heart the amazingly talented Greta-fied wonder that is Gwyneth. This biotch just all kinds of rocks ever thing she touches and to that I say “ All hail GP”. Get em’ girl!
So to cut to the chase…here is the skinny
Country Strong was written and directed by Shana Feste, and stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester.
Kelly Canter (Paltrow), a young and troubled country singer has had her fair share of sorrow and chaos in her recent history. She has suffered a miscarriage, and is struggling to salvage her music career and marriage, all while recovering in a rehabilitation facility from a turbulent drug and alcohol addiction. Beau (Hedlund), who works in the rehabilitation center, has been there by her side trying to assist in keeping her sober and on the straight a narrow. He is also having an affair with Kelly despite knowing she is married to James (McGraw), who has managed to obtain an early rehab check-out in a last effort scramble to help Kelly attempt to make a much needed musical come-back. Even with a great deal of understandable hesitation, Kelly agrees to leave rehab early and pursue an ambitious three-city tour with one minor condition- she wants Beau to be her opening act. What she doesn’t know is that James has already made plans of his own to book a rising singer Chiles Stanton (Meester) as Kelly’s opening act.
As it turns out, Beau is also fairly acquainted with Chiles, and appears to be quite disgruntled at the thought of touring with her even for a small amount of time. Chiles, who aspires to be country’s next big thing has one all the makings of a rising star- talent, looks, charisma, there is only one problem, she can’t seem to beat her stage fright when faced with appearing in-front of crowds. As must as Beau would love to watch Chiles choke on stage, he can’t help but feel compelled to jump on stage and help her through her set. This act of kindness sparks the first of many intimate encounters between Beau and Chiles that begin to lead to a simmering romance, which throws Beau into a sticky tug-of-war in trying to look out for Kelly, and trying to sort through his feelings for Chiles. Meanwhile Kelly’s premature rehab release proves too much more then she was ready to handle. Her first show bombs after receiving a disturbing package before her set, which spirals her back into heavy drinking and pill popping. Just as it appears that things couldn’t get any worse for all involved and the story unfolds, the viewers come to realize that “worse” doesn’t begin to scratch the surface.
I loved this film. Loved, loved, LOVED this film! It has so much depth to it, and without over articulating my feelings on it- It’s just friggin’ awesome! Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
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