|
Kelly Canter (Gwenyth Paltrow) is a famous country singer who leaves rehab early in the beginning of the movie. Her manager/husband James (Tim McGraw) wants to get her back on tour as early as possible. She is joined on the tour by two local Nashville singers. One is the attractive Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund), who worked in her rehab clinic, and the other is beauty queen Chiles Staton (Leighton Meister), who James wanted to join the tour. Beau and Kelly had an affair while she was in rehab, and James is attracted to Chiles as well. On top of these dirty little secrets, the Canter's marriage is on the rocks. But hold on… Beau thinks Chiles is pretty hot too.
Yeah… it's a mess. And mostly unnecessary.
Let's strip away the unnecessary relationships, and boil the movie down to a celebrity who is very weak, not getting a lot of true support from family, and is desperately trying to restart her career. This part of the movie is alright. The ups and downs Canter experiences are all expected, and when she's down to her last chance to have any possibility of a career in country music, the audience will root for her, at least marginally.
I'm not a real fan of country music, but I thought the soundtrack was great. How is it possible that one songwriter can write 10 songs for this movie that are all better than anything on country radio? I do hope that some of the songs from this movie make their way to the airwaves. It would be a huge upgrade.
Overall, the movie is not great, and probably should have cut out about 30 more minutes of unnecessary-ness, but it’s a pretty okay film for early January. Lets be fair… from January to April, most movies are okay at best. 2.5 stars. | 