If McGraw had been armed with a microphone, perhaps the movie could have gained something in symmetry; if Kelly had a grounding in social history, perhaps she could better be believed.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2011

The movie has its moments, but the characters are fuzzy around the edges...

Full Review | Mar 28, 2011

No saving grace here.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 25, 2011

The good news is that Paltrow can sing; the bad news is the mawkish and one-paced drama she's playing in.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 25, 2011

For me it's a no.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 24, 2011

I hated, loved, hated the movie. In that order.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2011

Even a Paltrow fan (I remain one) would have to concede that her willowy frame and perfect skin do not betray a lifetime of vodka-swilling and throwing up in hillbilly bars.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2011

As predictable and soulless as an over-produced country power ballad.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2011

Paltrow gives it her best but is so conspicuously doing country. We're meant to believe she has spent half her life staring into a vodka bottle, but she glows like she's just stepped out of a yoga retreat.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 23, 2011

C&W lovers will lap it up - look out for some stellar Nashville cameos - and there's big-lunged uplift to see you through the cornball plot turns.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2011

This enjoyably OTT drama-with-songs-in-it was monstered in January by American reviewers, who were maybe expecting a highbrow, subtle and meditative drama in which Gwyneth Paltrow is an alcoholic banjo player.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 20, 2011

The movie slogs from scene to scene with no urgency, no energy, making 110-minutes feel like a mind-numbing mental marathon the likes of which even championship level Grand Master chess players would find far too taxing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 21, 2011

Shana Feste's screenplay seldom rises above the level of daytime TV; the only actor who triumphs over her trite dialogue is Tim McGraw in a nonsinging role as Paltrow's husband and manager.

Full Review | Jan 14, 2011

If Feste actually believes that this show is country nirvana, she has no business making a country movie.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jan 14, 2011

Hedlund's got a hell of a voice, rotgut-ragged, and whether he's crooning or wooing, whatever he's selling, and no matter how cornpone, I'm buying.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2011

The movie isn't worth the scuffed cowgirl boots it's scooting around in.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 12, 2011

Unfortunately weak.

Full Review | Jan 11, 2011

Remember when country music meant something to narrative filmmaking, when a tortured, soulful song put to film could document the doubts and dimensions of an entire generation?

Full Review | Original Score: 0/4 | Jan 10, 2011

Catchy tunes, robust performances--but you can see every backstage-melodrama-cliche coming two scenes away.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 8, 2011

If the point of Country Strong was to prove that Gwyneth Paltrow can sing, then mission accomplished. You don't need to sit through this two-hour melodrama to confirm that.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 7, 2011