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Country Strong

Drama, music

A drama centered on a rising country-music songwriter (Hedlund) who sparks with a fallen star (Paltrow). Together, they mount his ascent and her comeback, which leads to romantic complications involving her husband/manager (McGraw) and a beauty queen-turned-singer (Meester).


The critical consensus

A decade after Duets, a singing Gwyn proves she can still reach the high notes. Shame the melodrama plays strained and unoriginal.

***(*)(*)Total Film, 15/03/2011

C&W lovers will lap it up - look out for some stellar Nashville cameos - and there's big-lunged uplift to see you through the cornball plot turns.

***(*)(*)Simon Braund, Empire Online, 21/03/2011

Unfortunately, despite some promising ingredients Shana Feste’s movie wallows in its unfolding tragedies and struggles to make much sense.

**(*)(*)(*)Rob Carnevale, The Herald, 24/03/2011

It’s telling that the happiest scene in the film is the one where Gwyneth sings to a 10-year-old leukaemia victim – a sure sign that we’re wallowing in whiny solipsism elsewhere.

**(*)(*)(*)Tim Robey, The Telegraph, 24/03/2011

Aside from one or two amiable moments of spontaneity, this has about as much dynamism as a plate of refried beans.

**(*)(*)(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 25/03/2011

Paltrow's journey is to end in a mushroom-cloud of phoney emotion and bizarre defeatism, which incidentally betrays the title.

*(*)(*)(*)(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 24/03/2011

Some killer tunes plus a genuinely believable turn from Paltrow make it a show worth catching.

***(*)(*)Daily Record, 25/03/2011

The movie has its moments, but the characters are fuzzy around the edges, Paltrow is only intermittently convincing (compare her, for instance, with Ronee Blakley in Nashville) and only Hedlund is a true star.

Philip French, The Observer, 27/03/2011

The performances lend it conviction and the soundtrack has enough heart and soul to endear it to true country music fans.

***(*)(*)Daily Express, 25/03/2011

I hated, loved, hated the move. In that order.

**(*)(*)(*)Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, 24/03/2011


Features about Country Strong

Interview: Gwyneth Paltrow

Amy Longsdorf, The Scotsman, 01/02/2011

Does Gyyneth Paltrow convince as a Nashville star in Country Strong?

Michael Cragg, The Guardian, 07/03/2011

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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