“Had a wonderful trip to NYC yesterday to see American Idiot for the fifth time (have ya’ll picked up on the fact that I obsess over things?) leaving today as my movie day. Jan tends to be pretty slow for the big releases, and there aren’t as many indie darling Oscar hopefuls that I need to squeeze in. Today’s movie was Country Strong, which was like last year’s Crazy Heart, except with a chick. And Crazy heart, of course, was like the previous year’s The Wrestler, except with a different career. While on the surface, each of those films looks like they’re carbon copies of each other, they do each have redeeming qualities. I think I should be able to avoid too much comparison based blogging for Country Strong. I’ll start by saying that its standout point was the characters.
What I loved was that while the film appeared to be about Gwyneth Paltrow’s character Kelly, one could argue that it was really about Garrett Hedlund’s character, Beau. That was just fine with me because I adored him. I’ve been a fan of Hedlund since Four Brothers (which I need to see again, I cant remember much other than the fact that I was totally smitten by that boy). I prolly said something similar a few weeks ago when writing up Tron. Strange that he had two movies released in such quick succession like that. If I was smitten with him in Four Brothers, I was head over heels with him here. Great combination of tough and sweet, and he sounded great too. Add in those eyes and that smile **swoon**
Gwyneth Paltrow had an interesting character too, although not quite the Oscar bait performance it was touted to be. My brain is blanking now, I cant think of where I was going with this. Let’s round out the cast with a few words on the others. I was concerned Leighton Meester would annoy me, but she didnt. I dont know if I’d go so far as to say I liked her, but she fit in well. Was also moderately impressed with Tim McGraw. My initial reaction to his casting was that he was trying to escort another actress to possible Oscar gold (no way in hell is it happening though), but there was more to him than the usual soft and supportive husband. He was more the tough love type here, with a few ventures into real hard ass. Different turn for him, that he did quite well.
As far as the story, I was into it. Again, I liked that a lot of the focus was on Beau’s persepctive. A lot of it was predictable, although I did like how it resolved even if I saw it coming. While it took me a minute to get into the mood for it, I did come to enjoy the music. Yes, Beau’s songs in particular, but Kelly’s were good too. Chiles’ had fun lyrics, but a little too bubblegum for me.
Wow, Im really not coherent at all. Im just gonna stop and move on.
Country Strong – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n