Don’t pay any attention to the critics. Country Strong is a wonderful movie, probably one of the best films from 2010, in my opinion. And ignore the movie trailer which made it look like some throwaway piece of trash. Country Strong is a really good music movie.

The first thing you notice when watching Country Strong is that they actually wrote DIALOG for the film, good dialog! This happens so infrequently these days that it’s always a shock to me when I experience it. The story set-up is really solid, and the four main characters develop continuously and quite beautifully over the course of the entire film. They also pulled off a romantic story line with four (four!)  interlocking love triangles, and made each triangle nuanced and interesting. Considering that this film is at least half musical performances, that tells you something about the efficiency and quality of the dialog.

But what really distinguishes Country Strong is the music and the way it is handled. First off, as far as I can tell everybody does their own singing, and they are all great! Not “good”, great. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were “good” in Walk the Line. These actors (Paltrow, Meester, and Hedlund) sound almost like they could have their own careers as country artists – in other words they each have a quality to their voices that transcends being able to carry a tune well, and the extra realism this provides the film cannot be underestimated.

Of course it helps that they are performing music that for the most part is head-and-shoulders better than any country music of the last 15 years. I pretty much hate modern country music and I loved the music for this movie. Leighton Meester’s character is clearly supposed to be some Taylor Swift clone, but the music she performs in this movie absolutely destroys anything Taylor Swift has ever done, trust me. Compare Garrett Hedlund’s music to the (stylistically similar) crap written for Crazy Heart and it will be obvious how pathetic Crazy Heart was as a “music movie.” And consider the song “Coming Home” that Paltrow wants but which is given to Meester to record. The song needs to sound like a smash hit when Meester sings it, and then sound way better than a smash hit when Paltrow sings it at the end. For this to work (and it does) not just any old song will do, obviously. They did a fabulous job with the music.

The other thing I loved about this film is that they had the guts to really emphasize the music. The performances are not cropped, they are exciting and interesting, and they blend performances and montage sequences really well.

I would like mention one little magical moment from the beginning of the film – when I saw this scene I knew the film was going to be great. Paltrow is in rehab and Hedlund is hanging out in her room, playing her the beginning of a song he has written. Paltrow questions his lines and he cajoles her to take up his guitar and do her own version. I don’t think I have ever seen this kind of thing done any better. It’s not just that her version is (of course) superior. It’s that it really seemed like it was completely spontaneous, she sang like someone who could really sing but might not have sung at all recently (accurately reflecting her character’s current circumstances,) and her delivery communicated as subtext her complicated feelings for him and the depth of her character’s artistic soul. It’s a lovely little scene that has that certain something that has become so rare in films. When Hedlund is stunned by her version, it’s not just because that’s what they are acting in the scene. It’s because it really is a bit stunning.

I am not a big fan of Gwyneth Paltrow but she is marvelous in this film! They should have given her an Academy Award for this performance – her performance makes Natalie Portman’s Black Swan look like a complete joke. Everyone else is really strong as well.

I highly recommend this film.