Country Strong
Published September 4, 2011
Film info
- Title Country Strong
- Director Shana Feste
- Year 2010
- Run time 1hr 57m
- Genres Music, Drama, Romance
- Tagline It doesn't matter where you've been as long as you come back strong
Soon after a rising young singer-songwriter (Garrett Hedlund) gets involved with a fallen, emotionally unstable country star (Gwyneth Paltrow), the pair embark on a career resurrection tour helmed by her husband/manager (Tim McGraw) and featuring a beauty queen-turned-singer (Leighton Meester). Between concerts, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all.
Background Info
This wouldn’t really be my choice of film, I must say. I have nothing against country music, but I’m more of a Shania fan and pop-country is not so popular in the country world. I like to think I’ll give any movie genre a go, though, so Country Strong it is.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:14 - Mr C says, you’ll recognise Tim McGraw, he’s the one in the cowboy hat. They’re all wearing cowboy hats! | |
| 5:28 - This is the five most countrified minutes I’ve ever spent. | |
| 6:45 - People actually call other people hoss? | |
| 9:16 - Released once again from rehab. That’s not a good sign. | |
| 12:00 - “I have no intention of stealing your invisible career.” | |
| 14:52 - Omg, she said y’all. | |
| 21:34 - Saying So am I is not accepting an apology. | |
| 24:59 - Why is he on the bus? I thought he said no. | |
| 29:59 - She can’t be mad at him though, she’s cheating on him with the other guy. | |
| 33:04 - I’d make that face if I turned around and saw that many people looking back at me. | |
| 39:00 - “I am going to sing, okay?” Not a good start to a gig. | |
| 42:53 - I want a tour bus. | |
| 44:24 - Ooh, Austin! | |
| 47:02 - What are they doing on that train and how are they going to get back again? | |
| 48:59 - She just walked out of his hotel room in a towel. She’s not very subtle. | |
| 56:21 - I don’t like any of these people. | |
| 1:02:21 - Ooh, that’s like Coyote Ugly. | |
| 1:11:42 - Everyone is sleeping with everyone else except Tim. Doesn’t seem fair. | |
| 1:19:30 - That might be the cutest kid there has ever been. | |
| 1:24:59 - “Just because they put them on the radio, doesn’t mean they’re worth a damn.” Weeelll… | |
| 1:33:15 - She’s reading the gossip mags. Everyone says they don’t do that. | |
| 1:39:18 - “If you’ve got it, flaunt it, make all the cowboys want it.” Ahh, country music. | |
| 1:46:22 - She said she wanted to live on a star. | |
| 1:52:28 - Tim McGraw only gets to sing over the end credits. |
Conclusions
The story was okay, although a bit cliched in places. It was far too long, but I suppose that comes of having to fit in lots of singing in amongst the story, rather than letting the songs move the story along (like in musicals). I didn’t like any of the characters and certainly couldn’t relate to them, but their story was interesting enough. I probably could have done with subtitles, because not only were they quite deep accents, they also seemed to mumble an awful lot.
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3 / 5