Country Strong Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Country Strong Blu-ray Movie Review

'Country Strong' could use some additional heft.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 12, 2011

Timing is everything.

Country music superstar Alan Jackson once sang: "who's cheatin' who, who's bein' true, and who don't even care anymore?" That quote rings true with regards to Country Strong -- particularly that last little stretch -- a picture with big ambitions that doesn't hit rock-bottom but that certainly loses its footing early on and stumbles through nearly two hours of melodrama that doesn't appear to have anything to say or much of an original story to tell. This is a Country music soap opera condensed down into a choppy little package that tells a story centered on the clash between young and old, worn down and up-and-coming, the perils of a hard life on the big stage while on the road to easy street, and yes, plenty of cheating and loving and whatnot. In all fairness, there's more to the movie than that; Country Strong delves into heavy personal drama that through the whole thing never seems like it's going to end well, but no matter whether it wraps up with a fairy tale happily-ever-after ending or plays out as a rip-out-the-heart tearjerker, the end result is just too bland, the film playing like a movie of the week jazzed up for the big screen rather than a real, honest Drama. Country Strong weighs in with a lot of effort at finding an emotional center and heart, it would seem, as its primary goal, but it's a lightweight when it comes time to deliver the goods.

Working the crowd.

Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow, Se7en) is a down-on-her-luck Country music superstar who has entered alcohol rehab after drunkenly falling down at a Dallas concert and leaving her unborn baby dead as a result of the unfortunate tumble. While there, she's come to know hospital employee and talented small-time Country singer Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund, Tron: Legacy) whom she has come to depend on in more ways than one. Her wish is for Beau to open her first show on her first tour out of rehab, but her husband/manager James (Tim McGraw, Friday Night Lights) has other plans. He's chosen an up-and-coming singer named Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester, The Roommate) -- who's also a local beauty queen -- to open Kelly's show. When Chiles flubs a small-time gig, Beau steps up to straighten her out. James, impressed with the duo's collective talents, urges them to both come on the road. Chiles dreams of being a big star, but Beau wants nothing to do with the spotlight, fame, and fortune of commercialized Country music. As a favor to Kelly and acting as her rehab sponsor, Beau reluctantly hits the road for Kelly's three-stop recovery tour where he and Chiles set themselves up to become Country's next big thing while a still-recovering Kelly proves she still has a long road ahead of her.

Country Strong's primary problem is that it tries to become so involved that it ultimately loses focus of each of its stories and regretfully comes down to a garbled mess of a movie that never really finds its direction. True, the picture is ultimately the story of shamed singer Kelly Canter and her attempts at a comeback, but the film becomes so derailed time and again that each side story never really grows into anything more than a distraction. The Beau and Chiles characters are far too underdeveloped in the grand scheme of things; they appear on-screen, sing some songs, share their personal histories, and fit into the story well enough, but there's no real sense of purpose beyond playing the part of "the next generation" of Country singers to counter the worn down Kelly and present various challenges to her slick husband James. Ultimately, there's far too much scattered drama -- Kelly's personal history, alcohol abuse, and lost baby; the juxtaposition between looks and talent; the differences between "music" and "commercialism;" the politics of the music industry; and verified and implied affairs, just to name a few -- that all fits into the "story" but never really settles into anything absolutely meaningful. The picture has a few touching moments here and there, but there's a surprising lack of real emotion and even less character development to make audiences really care about Kelly, Jason, Beau, and Chiles, both while the movie is playing and after it comes to an end.

While Country Strong never really gets to the heart of who its characters really are and seems content to settle for generic, no-feeling dialogue, the cast, to its credit, gives the movie its all. Garrett Hedlund is quite good as Beau, a young singer whose career is launched through a twist of fate when Kelly's fizzles in alcohol rehab. His character is maybe the film's most frustrating; Beau begins interestingly enough as man who sings for the love of music and not for the potential for stardom and money, but the angle isn't really explored all that much in light of all the personal drama swirling around the characters. Tim McGraw is quite good as what comes closest to the "villain" in the picture, even if the real "villains" are the invisible entities called addiction, uncertainty, stress, and sin. The real-life Country singer McGraw -- remember "Don't Take the Girl" and "Indian Outlaw?" -- plays the part with a slick used car salesman sort of vibe going on, yanking most of the emotion right out of the character and playing the part as if James where in it for only the bottom line, which seems to be the point. He's lost his love not to his wife's addictions but by his own doing, falling for the lifestyle, the dollars, the attention, the fame, and everything else Kelly has brought him, at the expense of their happiness as a couple. Leighton Meester looks the part of the fresh up-and-comer getting her big break as much for her figure and plump lips as her raw but unmistakable talent, but Gwyneth Paltrow is the real star here, playing the part of the broken Country star for all its worth, languishing in her mind but doing her best to put on the right front for all to see, until her inner torment exhausts her body which either collapses on her or drives her back into her dangerous old ways. These are good characters constructed from top-grade materials and shaped into solid building blocks, but Country Strong leaves them scattered on the floor as a big pile of potential rather than carefully stacking them into something more coherent and meaningful than a movie of the week of scattered melodrama and unfulfilled promise.

Country Strong Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Country Strong's 1080p transfer is of a relatively high quality. Though the image is quite warm, colors tend towards a slight reddish push, flesh tones tend to favor a heavy orange shading, and minor banding is evident in a few scenes, this is nonetheless a nice-looking, filmic image that's typical of Sony's always high-quality Blu-ray transfers. A visible layer of grain accentuates the transfer's stronger attributes; detail, for instance, is generally strong across the board, whether as seen in facial textures, clothing, or even fallen fall leaves visible outside the rehab center early in the movie. The image manages to impress with a fair bit of evident depth, and it remains crisp and sharply detailed even at a distance. Black levels are rock-solid throughout, never appearing excessively dark or, on the other side of the spectrum, dim and washed out. This is a fine 1080p image; it's not at the top of the heap or even one of Sony's absolute best, but there's no denying the underlying quality present, always evident even through a few minor eyesores.

Country Strong Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Country Strong twangs it up on Blu-ray with a high quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's a really good life to this track; buoyant, rhythmic, and spacious, it's a pleasure to behold. A wonderfully tight low end caps it off, invigorating the track during various musical numbers, whether in a smoky small town bar or on stage in front of thousands of screaming Texans. There's not much in terms of surround support or atmospherics outside of the concert scenes, through; while the latter brings plenty of crowd ambience -- applauding, singing along, cheering -- the rest of the track is fairly quiet, emphasizing the drama and interpersonal relationships more so than the world in which the characters exist. Indeed, outside of the music numbers, Country Strong is a fairly subdued, talk-heavy Drama. Dialogue is accurate and smooth as it is delivered from the center channel during both dramatic dialogue and concert singing, capturing the nuances of Beau's deep voice or Kelly's hitting of the high notes equally well. Country Strong's soundtrack works when it counts, bringing incredible life to the concert sequences while also favoring clean and articulate dialogue in the quieter dramatic scenes.

Country Strong Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Country Strong features a nice little assortment of extras, consisting primarily of a few featurettes and two music videos.

• Deleted Scenes (480p, 4:30): Beau's Mother, Kelly & Beau Talk, Chiles' Dressing Room, and Beau Says Goodbye to Parents.
• "Shake That Thing" -- Extended Performance (480p, 4:01).
• Original Ending (480p, 2:52).
• Friends in High Places: The Cast of Country Strong (1080p, 14:03): Cast and crew speak on the the quality of the cast, the diversity of the characters, the challenges of the roles, the actors's learning to sing and play instruments, and more. Made primarily from interview snippets and clips from the film.
• Putting the Words in Their Mouths: The Songwriters (1080p, 8:51): A look at the importance of writing the right songs for the movie and the need to have each character work with their own songwriter.
• A Little Bit Country: The Costumes (1080p, 6:45): Assembling the proper wardrobe for each singer's style.
• Music Videos (1080p): "Country Strong" by Gwyneth Paltrow (3:47) and "A Little Bit Stronger" by Sara Evans (4:46).
• Country Strong Soundtrack (1080p): A static ad for the soundtrack.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.
• BD-Live.
• Movie IQ.

Country Strong Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Country Strong tries hard. Its cast is solid; its music is catchy; and its intentions, scattered as they may be, are true. Unfortunately, the movie is a flavorless genre picture that's too bathed in cliché, too awash in poorly-developed characters, and technically far too choppy to really find a purpose or, just an important, a heart. Country Strong tells a story, but it tells a story without any redeeming value. There's the potential here for a superior human Drama, but the film instead plays it safe and, as a result, never captures the heart or the imagination like it should. Sony's Blu-ray release of Country Strong features a quality technical presentation and a fair assortment of extras. Fans can buy with confidence, but newcomers are encouraged to rent.