My Thoughts About The Country Strong Movie

Last night, Stephanie and I saw the press screening for the Country Song movie with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. This can best be described as a romantic country music drama.

The story is about country singer named Kelly Canter (Played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and a young female country artist named Chiles Stanton (Played by Leighton Meester) who desires to get her break at having her own country music career.

Wikipedia stats that the filmaker, Shana Feste, has said that Paltrow’s character was inspired by pop singer Britney Spears.

In the movie, there is a young and rising singer-songwriter named Beau Hutton (Played by Garrett Hedlund) who becomes involved in a relationship with the fallen country music star, Kelly Canter while she is in rehab. The two end up going on a tour to resurrect her career. Complications arise from romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all, including Kelly’s husband/manager, James Canter (Played by Tim McGraw).

Here’s the movie’s official trailer:

First off, let me tell you that I AM NOT a fan of country music AT ALL! I used to say that I “HATE” country music. However, today, I’d simply say that I don’t very much care for about 95% of what is called country music today.

This movie included several themes that I don’t particularly like, such as extra marital affairs, pre-marital sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and some offensive language. However, in spite of these themes and it’s focus on the country music, there was “something” about this movie that captivated my heart for the story that was being told.

I loved the acting performance of all four main stars, mentioned above. This is the second movie I’ve seen that featured Tim McGraw as an actor. I must say, I really like him in movies and hope to see him featured in more of them in the future. If you haven’t seen The Blind Side, you should!

I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone. But I will tell you that I actually teared up at least two times during the movie.

I will also tell you that tell you that I actually enjoyed most of the country music in the movie. (Shh.. Don’t tell my wife!). In fact, if Garrett Hedlund were a real country music artist, I’d probably buy one of his albums. There were SEVERAL songs that he sang in the movie that I liked simply because of his voice. Looking at the Country Strong Motion Picture Soundtrack, I see that they only feature one of his songs from the movie titled “Chances Are” which is pretty good.

The other two songs on that soundtrack that I think are worth checking out are “Words I Couldn’t Say” by Leighton Meester, and “Country Strong” by Gwyneth Paltrow.”

Would I recommend that others go see this movie? I don’t know. Though I can say that I’m glad that I saw it. When it comes out on DVD, I think I’d be willing to watch it again, just for the music! I can’t believe I just typed that!