Country Strong - 1 1/2 stars

This movie is a lot like last year's Crazy Heart - if Crazy Heart really sucked!

At the beginning of the movie we meet Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund from Tron: Legacy). Beau is a country / western singer. We know this not only because we see him on stage performing, but because he always wears jeans, western shirts, cowboy hats, and he drives a beat up Ford pickup. During the day he works as an orderly at a rehab facility.

One of the patients is a country superstar named Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow). Kelly likes Beau to play and sing for her, and she helps write his songs. Her husband/manager James (Tim McGraw) shows up and takes her out of rehab, even though she is not ready to leave.

The next night, James sees Beau perform at a club and asks him to come on the road and open for Kelly. Here is where I checked out of the movie, because Beau says no. Anyone who loves performing wants 2 things: to perform for as many people as possible, and to make a living doing it. But Beau says no. He likes performing for people, and he doesn't care where. He's perfectly happy to keep playing in local bars.

Of course he changes his mind and does join them on the road, or else we wouldn't have a movie. But if we didn't have a movie, I wouldn't really mind. In fact, I would prefer it. This movie is so badly written, the only fun I had was watching Kelly get drunk and try to perform. She is so bad she has to be helped off stage while the curtain comes down and the band continues to play.

The dialogue is horrible. There is a scene where Kelly asks Beau "you think I'm crazy, don't you?" He should answer that no, she isn't crazy, just an alcoholic. But what he says is "love and fame just don't mix." What the hell does that mean? It does go along with the message of the movie, which seems to be being a star is bad, it's better to remain unknown. The end of the movie (spoiler alert) is Beau performing in a small club on a ranch somewhere. He has passed on the opportunity to record, tour, be a star and make lots of money.

The movie tries really hard to be dramatic. I think they expect people to cry. But during what should be the saddest moment in the movie, I was just chuckling. The movie just doesn't work.