As befits its title,
Country Strong
has more than its share
of strong moments.
It’s in the connective
thread between those
moments, however,
that the film unravels.
Gwyneth Paltrow
headlines as Kelly
Canter, a six-time
Grammy winner (mentioned numerous times
throughout the film) and country-western
music legend whose career has hit the skids
thanks to repeated stints in rehab and the
resulting bad press.
In effort to bring Kelly back into the
limelight, her manager/husband James
(Tim McGraw) has arranged a concert tour.
Accompanying Kelly on the bill are rebellious
young singer/songwriter Beau Hutton (Garrett
Hedlund, also seen in
TRON: Legacy) and newcomer Chiles Stanton
(Leighton Meester).
The tour is a big break for both Beau and Chiles, but Beau is wary, in no small part because he’s been carrying on an affair with Kelly and is none too sure that she can handle the rigors of a tour. Indeed, Kelly is pretty shaky from the get-go and the tour is a troubled one, despite James’ best efforts to comfort and support her.
The principal actors all have big scenes, none more than Paltrow. She’s got it all to play, and then some: Emotional scenes. Crying scenes. Romantic scenes. Drunk scenes. Remorseful scenes. Performance scenes. She handles them as well as can be expected under the circumstances (and the heaviness of the script), and carries a tune quite ably. Aside from the principal four characters, however, no one else in the film has any depth or dimension. All of that has been saved by writer/director Shana Feste for the leads, and she has a propensity to pack their scenes with every clich in the book.
That’s not to say the actors don’t play them well. Hedlund is handsome, soulful and, at times, truculent. That he carries off those aspects so well, particularly the last one, is due to his sincerity in playing the role. Likewise, in what could have been the story’s one-note bimbo, Meester is sincere and appealing. As for McGraw, the only one of the film’s stars with any country/ western music experience (and it’s a lot), he quietly walks away with the entire movie, imbuing his character with a subtle yet transcendent dignity and strength.
But, overall, it’s not enough to keep Country Strong from plunging headlong into soap-opera formula. There are about eight endings for the film, each one hokier than the last, which makes Country Strong pushy to an almost interminable degree. Shorter and sharper would have been better, to say nothing of more effective.
A medieval muddle in every sense, Season of the Witch is a bombastic combination of swords, sorcery and silliness — with the latter facet taking precedence throughout. Nicolas Cage (woefully miscast) and Ron Perlman (not so much) star, respectively, as Behmen and Felson, which sounds like a Catskills comedy team. Actually, they are heroic veterans of the Crusades who have forsaken war and abandoned the battlefield.
After being captured and branded as deserters, which they are, they are charged with escorting an accused witch (Claire Foy) across treacherous terrain for trial. This being the 14th century (anachronistic dialogue notwithstanding), the Black Plague is everywhere and the countryside is rife with fear and superstition.
During the journey, which entails a good number of strange occurrences, Behmen and Felson are forced to accept the possibility that their captive is, indeed, possessed of supernatural powers. Long before that, however, the audience is forced to accept the possibility that Season of the Witch is a clunker. Unintentionally hilarious and downright campy, the film never gains a dramatic (or even melodramatic) foothold.
Cage, whose preternatural locks have become his trademark from movie to movie, brings a stone-faced earnestness to the proceedings. This is hardly a role, a performance or a project that the Oscar winner will likely savor in years to come, or even next week. The indomitable Christopher Lee, who at this stage in his career cannot be faulted for appearing in anything, lends his distinctive voice to the ailing cardinal who sends the knights on their way.
The Black Plague makeup does Lee no favors (nor anyone else, for that matter), and the most astonishing thing about Season of the Witch is that it earned a PG-13 rating despite being loaded with violence, gore and oozing sores, not to mention a climactic and gruesome barrage of CGI special effects. The holes in the plot tend to ooze, too — and none too pleasantly.
January has long been considered a dumping ground for hit-and-miss movies, and Season of the Witch has itself been “seasoning” on the studio shelf for some time. Thus, the timing for its release is pretty perfect as things go. Early in the film, one character comments: “What madness is this?” What madness, indeed.
The tour is a big break for both Beau and Chiles, but Beau is wary, in no small part because he’s been carrying on an affair with Kelly and is none too sure that she can handle the rigors of a tour. Indeed, Kelly is pretty shaky from the get-go and the tour is a troubled one, despite James’ best efforts to comfort and support her.
The principal actors all have big scenes, none more than Paltrow. She’s got it all to play, and then some: Emotional scenes. Crying scenes. Romantic scenes. Drunk scenes. Remorseful scenes. Performance scenes. She handles them as well as can be expected under the circumstances (and the heaviness of the script), and carries a tune quite ably. Aside from the principal four characters, however, no one else in the film has any depth or dimension. All of that has been saved by writer/director Shana Feste for the leads, and she has a propensity to pack their scenes with every clich in the book.
That’s not to say the actors don’t play them well. Hedlund is handsome, soulful and, at times, truculent. That he carries off those aspects so well, particularly the last one, is due to his sincerity in playing the role. Likewise, in what could have been the story’s one-note bimbo, Meester is sincere and appealing. As for McGraw, the only one of the film’s stars with any country/ western music experience (and it’s a lot), he quietly walks away with the entire movie, imbuing his character with a subtle yet transcendent dignity and strength.
But, overall, it’s not enough to keep Country Strong from plunging headlong into soap-opera formula. There are about eight endings for the film, each one hokier than the last, which makes Country Strong pushy to an almost interminable degree. Shorter and sharper would have been better, to say nothing of more effective.
A medieval muddle in every sense, Season of the Witch is a bombastic combination of swords, sorcery and silliness — with the latter facet taking precedence throughout. Nicolas Cage (woefully miscast) and Ron Perlman (not so much) star, respectively, as Behmen and Felson, which sounds like a Catskills comedy team. Actually, they are heroic veterans of the Crusades who have forsaken war and abandoned the battlefield.
After being captured and branded as deserters, which they are, they are charged with escorting an accused witch (Claire Foy) across treacherous terrain for trial. This being the 14th century (anachronistic dialogue notwithstanding), the Black Plague is everywhere and the countryside is rife with fear and superstition.
During the journey, which entails a good number of strange occurrences, Behmen and Felson are forced to accept the possibility that their captive is, indeed, possessed of supernatural powers. Long before that, however, the audience is forced to accept the possibility that Season of the Witch is a clunker. Unintentionally hilarious and downright campy, the film never gains a dramatic (or even melodramatic) foothold.
Cage, whose preternatural locks have become his trademark from movie to movie, brings a stone-faced earnestness to the proceedings. This is hardly a role, a performance or a project that the Oscar winner will likely savor in years to come, or even next week. The indomitable Christopher Lee, who at this stage in his career cannot be faulted for appearing in anything, lends his distinctive voice to the ailing cardinal who sends the knights on their way.
The Black Plague makeup does Lee no favors (nor anyone else, for that matter), and the most astonishing thing about Season of the Witch is that it earned a PG-13 rating despite being loaded with violence, gore and oozing sores, not to mention a climactic and gruesome barrage of CGI special effects. The holes in the plot tend to ooze, too — and none too pleasantly.
January has long been considered a dumping ground for hit-and-miss movies, and Season of the Witch has itself been “seasoning” on the studio shelf for some time. Thus, the timing for its release is pretty perfect as things go. Early in the film, one character comments: “What madness is this?” What madness, indeed.
