When Gwyneth was on the CMA Awards singing the title tune with Vince Gill, I just knew this movie was going to be amazing. In a nutshell, Gwynnie plays Kelly, a washed-up superstar who meets an up-and-comer in rehab. Tim plays her manager/husband. Add in breakdowns, break-ups, cheating and alcohol, and there you have it.
Pretty much all the right ingredients for a great country song huh?
But not a great country movie. It’s not bad; it’s just not much of anything.
Tim’s character James is likeable enough, but it’s the constant usin’ and abusin’ that finally wears you down. And at the end, there’s nobody you really want to root for.
I won’t say don’t waste your time, but there are better flicks out there. Here are my favorite five:
"Coal Miner's Daughter." I first saw it at a packed theater in Springfield back in 1980. Based on the life of Loretta Lynn, it stars Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. The rags to riches story earned Spacek an Oscar.
"Urban Cowboy" features John Travolta and Debra Winger as Bud and Sissy, fightin', bull ridin', dancin', breaking up and making up, mainly at the ginormous Gilley's honkytonk in Houston. Add in a country-fied Vinny Barbarino, and that's all you need.
"Walk the Line" is about the life of the man in black, Johnny Cash, and the love of his life, June Carter. Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her role as June and Joaquin Phoenix easily pulled off the Cash swagger before he got all weird. Either Johnny or Joaquin.
"O Brother, Where Art Thou" stars George Clooney and some other guys who break out of a chain gang and meet up with all kinds of craziness trying to find some hidden money. If you only watch it for the tune, "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys, it's worth it.
But my most favorite country music movie is not an award winner, the acting is not all that great and the story is predictable, but I love it just the same. "Pure Country" came out in 1992. It stars George Strait as Dusty, a pony-tailed country rock star who gets tired of all the smoke and lights and "takes a walk" back to his roots. He finds himself and true love amid bar fights, misunderstandings, imposters and barrel riding. Again, there's no little gold statues attached to this flick, and George Strait is sweetly awkward in his role, but not only do I own it on DVD (and VHS, gasp!), but I watch it every time I catch it on TV.
“Pure Country” won’t change your life, but you won’t be disappointed either. “I cross my heart.”
Contact Nancy Wilson, a morning-radio personality at WHKO-FM (K99.1), by e-mail through the website at k99online.com.
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