Country Strong

Year: 2010

Actors: Leighton Meester, Garrett Hedlund, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw

Duration: 117 min

WARNING! The Synopsis may contain Spoilers!Best Line: Fame and love cant live in the same place.Country Strong is a very well written and well acted movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the aging Kelly Canter; a country western star with a past, Tim McGraw as her husband/manager James Canter; Garrett Hedlund as Beau Hutton a young country western singer working part time at clubs and part time at a rehab center; and Leighton Meester as Chiles Stanton a Beauty Queen want-to-be country western star.Country Strong is a movie that takes a look at things most of us dont want to even acknowledge, addiction. The writer, Shana Feste does a very good job; shes either been there or knows someone close to her whos gone through it because shes captured very, very well small nuisances that most of us would not even see. Most times you see a movie and it shows one side or the other, but Country Strong shows that pain of the disease comes to both user and care giver; in this case, the talent, Kelly; and her husband/manager, James trying to save her career or at least to let her go out gracefully, but more towards keeping her on the stage and bringing in the money. What got her into rehab was being drunk at her concert, being pregnant, and tripping over a cord and falling ten feet losing the baby.We meet Kelly and Beau playing with song lyrics in the first scene at the rehab, after we get a performance by Garrett Hedlund singing. They are interrupted by Kellys husband, James, who is there to take Kelly out of rehab early and get her back working. This happens too often; usually the drinker convinces the care giver that they are fine now; the care giver wants to believe it, and even though it shouldnt happenthe addict leaves early with still no skills at dealing with the bumps in life.Then we meet Chiles Stanton getting ready to sing at a club to become Kellys opening act, even though Kelly wants Beau to open for her. Beau is offended to hear this Beauty Queen is singing at the famous club he sings at, feels she hasnt earned the right, isnt good enough, doesnt fit the mold after all, Patsy Cline had sung there. Really the situation represents her being there at all, that anyone is auditioning to be Kellys opening act because he believes she should stay in treatment and the last thing she should be doing is going back out on tour. Beau feeds Chiles some snide remarks, reminding her that she usually chokes when she tries to sing anyway. His prediction does indeed happen. After a few attempts of trying and freezing up he cant just let her go down like that so he starts a duet with her to get her started, whatever else Beau is, if he sees a solution his compassion kicks in and he has to help. James sees this as an opportunity to get someone on the road with them that will help with Chiles and with Kelly so he agrees to have Beau tour with them.Kelly is a typical fragile drunk out of rehab, she needed more time there; she has no skills, she still sees the world a bit skewed and she has no coping skills. Armed with nothing she attempts to return to the business that demands everything of her. She still has the alcoholics dramatic way of seeing what they want to see, not asking what is true or correct, but just taking that feeling and running with it. First concert: shes doing pretty good, then she stumbles onto an innocent conversation between James and Chiles about her wardrobe not clashing with Kellys and all Kelly sees is that James is interested in Chiles. Then a delivery man shows up with gifts from sponsors and special fans (screened) but somehow a box slips through and it has a doll with blood all over it Xed out eyes and the word Baby killer. That was more than she could stand so she did the only familiar thing, she fortified herself with a bottle of vodka.We get to see the care giver side a little. James has picked Kelly up early, she demands that Beau open for her. They are in bed and she asks him how talented she is, she needs to hear that he still sees her the same. She apologizes for Dallas (meaning losing the baby) and says that they should talk about it. Something she learned while in rehab, owning up up to what we did and facing what the other person has to say. Then she makes a romantic gesture and he announces he has just taken an Ambein and hell see her in eight hours. So at the concert she believes shes seen James in a clandestine situation and now she has gotten the doll; without enough rehab under her belt she returns to the only thing she knows works. Now it is up to James to get her out of the closet and on the stage. He gets her to let him in and he sits next to her trying to reason with her that there are sick people who will never forget and that she needs to prove them wrong and get out there and show them that she is not that person anymore. He begins to lose patience and tries to pull her from the closet and without thinking she slaps him. Now the oh so familiar alcoholic behavior, apologies, Ill do anything you want, please, Im sorry, please like me like I used to be. The caregiver now has the upper hand, he can get her to do whatever he wants. He gets her on stage, but she is drunk, the singing lasts only a short time then she starts blathering, forgetting where she is and what is expected of her. She tries one time to sing but ends up crying and has to be escorted off the stage.James becomes angry with Beau demanding to know where he was when she got the vodka. Beau replies, I was on stage! James becomes angry proclaiming that Beau should have some tricks up his sleeve to keep from doing this. Beau replies, Yeah, dont take her out of rehab before the rehab!The next tour stop is Austin, everyone worries if Kelly can hold it together for that performance. Kelly is trying desperately to have James the way they used to be. She remembers the way they used to be and wants him to see her the same way again. James feels like he lives with two different women, one is the one he fell in love with and the one he has no idea what shell do next. He seen her lose their baby, slap him, and fall apart on stage. Hes running out of excuses for her. Kelly sober and trying to rebound again, tries to see the world good again and decides Beau should see a recording studio because she feels certain he will be recording after this tour because it is natural for him, he doesnt care for who, he just loves writing and singing. When they arrive at the recording studio, Chiles is recording the song that she wanted to close her Dallas show with and record for herself. Since James is her manager she sees him as a conspirator and back stabber, so shes off and running again, though everyone thinks she went back to the trailer.James and Beau have an interesting conversation about what kind of man Beau thinks James must be. James admits he has no idea when she became so fragile, that she used be so strong, and that all she wanted was to be on stage. That he has no idea what to do with this new Kelly. Beau tells James that they should turn the bus around and put her back in rehab. James says he just cant let her go out like that; that at one time she had such a fire inside her and hopes that she can get that back. That James was her sponsor, he must have seen it, Beau admits that they both know he wasnt her sponsor, and James decks him.The Austin Show is doomed from the start. Believing that she is in the trailer, no one seems concerned until it gets close to show time and no one knows where she is; Beau figuring he can find the crap kind of bar shed end up in and he does find her. She is however completely smashed. He has Chiles bring a taxi down so that they can get her back, Kelly tells Chiles that Beau is a good guy. They unfortunately come in a door where the promoter sees her condition; Thats it were done. James again feels slapped in the face by that other Kelly. He just walks away. From the first botched concert her public relations outfit puts together good publicity by having her make an appearance for the Make a Wish Foundation where she would visit a little boy with leukemia. After the botched 2nd concert James tells her it has been cancelled. Kelly visits the promoter and gets the Dallas concert back. James is not really happy about this at all, but does his job.Kelly visits the school and a little boy named Travis who has leukemia and sings a song she makes up on the spot about him. Then she dances with him and gets the whole class to dance. James comes and dances with Kelly which surprises her and she loves it. To her it is just like when they were young and loved each other. After a few minutes James looks at her, stops dancing and walks down the hall and sits on a bench crying. This is the woman he loves, but how long will she be this woman, in his mind he sees her vomiting, slapping him, sleeping with other men, their lost baby, and he realizes he has to keep her at arms length because she has the power to hurt him so much, it is not easier to be her manager, she makes him look bad all the time, but as a wife and love, she could destroy him.When he pulls away, Kelly realizes that they will never have any other kind of relationship and, I believe it is then that she decides what she will do. Like I said, two people, a drinker and their care giver, share such a volatile relationship, the drinker needs to stop drinking and examine their drinking life. The caregiver has to decide for themselves whether they can risk whether they can take anymore. Alcohol is a legal drug, but it ruins more families, loses more jobs, kills more people, cuts production at the workplace more than all the other drugs combined.Her last show is very good.

Genre: Action   Drama   Music