I’m at an impasse…

I hate country music, but I love Gwyneth Paltrow.
I hate feel-good country movies, but I loved Crazy Heart.
I REALLY hate country music, but I love that I can not hate it for a few hours if I want to.

Country Strong‘s (THR article) the name of the feel-good country movie about a big star (Paltrow) who falls from grace into a life of addiction, only to have a new chance thanks to a rising talent (Garret Hedlund), only to risk it all again as her husband (Tim McGraw) tries to hold it all together. Up and coming talent Leighton Meester plays the young belter also muddying the mix up. When you watch the trailer below all will become evident, because it’s the job of movies like this to showcase every plot twist in advance. Take a peek at the trailer:

Superficially it feels like Crazy Heart with a period. Right down the balance of Hollywood talent and legit country musicians but as proven with Duets, Gwyneth is a talented singer and judging from the trailer she pulls it off in spades. What Jeff Bridges did to the legit whisky-fueled portion of the market, it appears Paltrow is going to do the same for the Taylor Swift ‘Female Country Pop’ market.

Crazy Heart, stripped of Bridges is a very mediocre movie with some serious 3rd act problems. It just happened to benefit from one of a great actor’s greatest portrayals. On the surface it would appear this film would need more help based solely on the amount of melodrama in the trailer.

But it’s a great move for Gwyneth. We’ll see how it goes.