The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

Country Strong lives up to its name

If you are looking to throw on your cow boots and sing along to Jessica Andrew’s “Summer Girl,” you’ll be disappointed; but pleasantly so. Instead, Country Strong vividly depicts the disastrous alcoholic life of Kelly Canter, played by Gwyneth Paltrow and makes viewers squirm in anguish with the strong desire to step in to help.

The movie starts out with Kelly Canter, a six-time grammy winner, flirtatiously song writing with Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund), who she likes to call her “sponsor,” in her room at rehab. Conflict immediately becomes evident when her husband James (Tim McGraw) awkwardly interrupts them.

We soon learn that Canter was admitted into rehab after drunkenly falling off the stage at her Dallas concert. She was five months pregnant at the time and loss of the baby will haunt her throughout the movie. James, who seems to be more interested in his wife’s career than in her well-being eagerly checks her out of rehab early and schedules three shows for her, including a chance for her to redeem herself in Dallas.

After being paired with Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, it became evident that McGraw could not keep up with the talent of great actresses. One would think that if they were going to pair him with another star actress, they take advantage of the one thing he can do, and do very well at that: sing.

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Instead, McGraw was given the only starring non-singing role and portrays a man with a personality completely opposite of his own. It’s difficult to accept McGraw as a stubborn forceful husband so contrary to the light-hearted man he is in real life.

Besides her struggle with alcoholism, Kelly’s love life is also in shambles, as she continuously comments on the problems of her marriage and compares it was before. She relies on Beau for the affection she does not receive from James. Although he is seemingly aware of their fling, he does not interject hoping it will help Kelly put on a good show.

As they prepare to hit the road, James takes special interest in getting up and coming singer, Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) to come on the road and open for them. Meester’s voice manages to wow Kelly’s producers in the movie, as well as the viewers themselves. Canter does everything she can to get Beau to accompany them also, but this backfires as he falls for Chiles.

Hence the traditional love triangle storyline is created between the Kelly, Beau, and Chiles. At first bitter because of her relationship with Beau and promising career, Kelly eventually comes around and gives Chiles possibly the most important advice of the film, “choose love.”

Chiles and Beau’s emerging careers and relationship seem to be the younger version of Kelly and James. As they watch the interaction of what Beau calls “love and fame in the same place,” they base their decisions upon the failure of the older couple.

For anything McGraw takes away from the film, Paltrow makes up for and adds all the more. Paltrow fits the role of an unstable alcoholic star perfectly, as she enables viewers detest her as she drunkenly dances in the local bar before her concert. Her persona can drastically shift, taking the emotions of the viewers with her, when in the following scene she visits a child in the hospital with leukemia.

The one major question viewers went into the movie asking was whether or not Gwyneth Paltrow could sing. However, for the majority of the movie only one thing was confirmed — writer and director Shana Feste is very good at leaving viewers in suspense.

As Paltrow’s condition prevented her from singing time and time again, the most the viewers got was a torturous 10 second snippet. It was not until the very end of the movie that the Paltrow let lose and affirmed viewers that, with the help of a catchy tune, she is indeed musically gifted.

No matter what you are looking for in a movie, Country Strong has something to offer everyone. There is a great amount of drama with the multitude of scenes in which the characters battle alcohol addiction, the good country music from a variety of singers and the love stories filled with affairs and new beginnings. If anything, there is a surplus of content. However, the many different aspects of this film are what allow the plot to continue to grow a little bit stronger each scene. Overall, Country Strong is a movie with a well-developed plot and an attraction for everyone.

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Country Strong lives up to its name