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).
A decade after Duets, a singing Gwyn proves she can still reach the high notes. Shame the melodrama plays strained and unoriginal.
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.
Unfortunately, despite some promising ingredients Shana Feste’s movie wallows in its unfolding tragedies and struggles to make much sense.
Screenplay feeble.
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.
Aside from one or two amiable moments of spontaneity, this has about as much dynamism as a plate of refried beans.
Paltrow's journey is to end in a mushroom-cloud of phoney emotion and bizarre defeatism, which incidentally betrays the title.
Some killer tunes plus a genuinely believable turn from Paltrow make it a show worth catching.
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.
The performances lend it conviction and the soundtrack has enough heart and soul to endear it to true country music fans.
I hated, loved, hated the move. In that order.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.