Ed's Review Dot Com

Screen Gems, Maguire Entertainment, TVM

Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester, Tim McGraw, Alana Grace, Ed Bruce, Jeffrey Buckner Ford, Jeremy Childs, Marshall Chapman

Kelly Cantor (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a big country star whose career is on a huge slide. Her life seems to be going down the toilet along with everything else. Taken out of rehab too soon, her husband Ed (Tim McGraw) who is also her manager is driving her to make a comeback before it’s too late. Kelly falls for young country singer Beau (Garrett Hedlund) who comes along on the tour as Kelly’s “sponsor” for her recovery. To add to the mix, the opening act is Chiles (Leighton Meester) a former beauty queen now starting out on a country career.

This story is the country version of “A Star is Born“. This is a volitile mixture and a very dangerous situation with all that’s going on. Kelly is struggling, and the songwriters are in love with Chiles and can see she’s a big star in the making. Suddenly the new songs that were meant for Kelly are being given to Chiles as her career skyrockets and Kelly’s keeps sinking.

So the question is whether those near her can keep her on track, and if her fans will tolerate the screwups and mistakes she has made. This is a dramatic film, and I said, very close to the story of “A Star is Born” in many ways, but it does have a country feel that is right on. This is surprising as the only star in the film that has any experience as a country singer is the fantastic Mr. Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and he does not sing a not nor perform in any way in the film. All the rest of the stars had no experience at all in country music and had to learn the way. They all immersed themselves in country music and came out very good performers. They setup the feel of the story just fine. Tim McGraw gets to play a rough and gruff guy who comes off as a jerk sometimes, but Kelly needs someone who can keep her on track somehow. She may have only one last chance to pull it off, and whether or not she does, at least in the end we know everyone has done their best through all the trials and tribulations. It has a pretty quick twist in the end, but all in all it’s a pretty good country music film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog