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Please, no one make a play on the word “Country” and “C-U-Next-Tuesday” please. The trailer for Gwyneth Paltrow’s new film, Country Strong, was just released and it is… ugh. I mean, I was a bit startled because it’s been a while since I’ve seen Gwyneth “act.” I still haven’t seen Iron Man 2, so my only exposure to Goopy lately has been through photos and Goop newsletters. So, she’s “acting” as a country music singer who is struggling with alcoholism and a crappy marriage and a comeback and a young All About Eve-esque upstart (Leighton Meester) who seems to be angling for Goopy’s career and her marriage. Here’s the trailer:
First, what I like: Gwyneth is singing her own songs, and good for her. Her voice is stronger than most pop stars, and she doesn’t sound bad, at all. Also, the ensemble looks interesting – Tim McGraw is turning into a solid supporting actor, Leighton Meester finally gets an interesting part, and the younger dude, Garrett Hedlund is an up-and-comer who looks pretty hot. What I don’t like… ugh, so much. Goopy’s “hick” Southern accent sounds so cheesy. I hate when Yankees do that fakey Southern twang, like every Southerner sounds like Britney Spears. It’s not the case, at all. No one ever tries to do a classy Southern accent anymore. Secondly, I’ll have to see it to be sure, but I’m not buying Goopy’s “lush” scenes. No self-respecting lush just stands beside the bed throwing things. A real lush climbs into bed, starts sobbing and picks up the phone to start drunk-dialing, for real.
But the main problem I have with this is a story problem: at one point, McGraw’s character, the husband/manager I suppose, seems to be saying that this is the country singer’s “last chance.” Now, if she was an alcoholic pop star who got a D.U.I., that might be the case. But she’s a country music star – the country music fan base would be perfectly able to “forgive” one of their stars if she was a lush. They will forgive anything as long as the singer doesn’t try to go mainstream and “forget her roots.” True story.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Gwyneth Paltrow
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44 Responses to “Gwyneth Paltrow deigns to “act” trashy, drunk & Southern in her new film”
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It looks slightly better than that horrible karaoke movie she did.
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Doesn’t it sound like the crowd is chanting “Jerry! Jerry!” at the end?
How appropriate.
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I think this movie looks fabulous and I can’t wait to see it!
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no need to watch the movie, everythings is in the trailer! i hate when they do this!
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She seems so horribly miscast for this. I know she can sing, I just don’t think country Music suits her. This does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSszDzU5fNY
And by the quality of the songs this looks like another stinker on her resume.
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She’s too “New England” to be believable. If you’re not redneck you have to be Southern beauty queen to pull this off. I don’t know if Leighton has it either, but Goopy is way off the mark.
She probably just wanted to make a movie where she can sing and country music is one of those genres where you don’t have to be that good.
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@ jen you are bang on. anyone can sing a country tune and sound decent. really, even someone that thinks they”re tone deaf can pull of a decent rendition of any “new country” song.
this movie looks terrible.
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Paltrow’s accent in it is annoying so far. I do like McGraw though, and I like Meester. And I didn’t know much about Garrett Hedlund until recently but Lainey Gossip had a lot on him and he’s really sexy in a lanky, laid back looking way. Hard to explain and he’s cuter without the facial hair.
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the main thing i get from that trailer, goopy looks whaaaaaay better with an extra 10 pounds on board. she actually looks like a person.
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Not wild about the southern accent, but still heart my Gwynnie!
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There is nothing we Southerners like better than having some pompous asshat mangle our accents and lump us all into a Deliverance or Gone With The Wind pile. Thanks for this sh#t, GOOPy.
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So I just watched Iron Man 2 for the first time last night. The overall movie was as expected… general entertainment… but Gwyneth was probably the worst actor on set, including the extras. I’ve never seen a performance so wooden and unbelievable (same goes for scarlet unfortunately). But after thinking awhile I realized I’ve never really seen a Gwyneth movie where she came off as believable. Horrid actress.
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I actually think the movie looks sort of good.
To be honest, I don’t dislike Paltrow. I dislike how pretentious she is, but I do not hate her acting. She usually puts in a solid performance in most movies she does.
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Even with the extra weight she supposedly gained, she’s still a little too skinny I think. But her accent could be much worse. You need to realize that a Nashville accent isn’t a fluid Southern gentry type of drawl (nor is it hick-ish), so it probably wouldn’t have made sense for her to use one.
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Seems like ‘Walk the Line’ reworked with Gwyneth playing the combined roles of June Carter and Johnny Cash.
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*sigh* couldn’t they have gotten Reese to play this role…she has a decent voice and actually is a Southener.
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Boy, Tim McGraw is getting some solid work, he should be alright as long as he stays a charater actor. Also, I wish that I looked that pretty when I am on a downward spiral and fall down drunk, BITCH PLEASE!, the director needs to be slapped.
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“whass gowen awn?”
“his thet mah sawng?”
are you freaking kidding me? there are lots of southern accents (i have a southern virginian one myself) but none of them sound like this. this sounds like when people teach their dogs to say things, like “i want a cracker” and it sounds like gobbeldygook to everyone else. also, as someone else pointed out, she is way too new england frosty to play a southerner, with her lank hair, skinny body and snobbish voice. her pretentiousness is so insane, and one thing southerners do NOT like is pretention.
on a postive note, her voice is pretty good. and garrett hedlund is hot – my, my! an iffen he gits nekkid i might could go see this mooovie, dang.
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So she had the role of the very type of person she publicly despises when she goes into full-blown Eurotrash mode?
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Could someone please tell me what
GOOPY stands for?
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SHe just sucks, and what sucks is that the other cast seems pretty cool, and I might even see the movie, if it weren’t for her. Did anyone notice on the trailer when she was supposed to be all into her song and rocking out? She just looked so awkward-ugh, ugh, ugh-do love her mother tho
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I don’t like or dislike Paltrow, but this isn’t doing it for me, either.
I didn’t feel her pathos, sadness, suffering, as with a “real self-respecting lush’s” life. It’s not coming across to me. Looks like she just needs a nap or a smack. Not much deeper.
She’s got “sad face” down pat, but even her “That’s how it’s done, sweetheart” stroll at the end, had no energy, no heat, no “BAM, B!TCH!,” or whatever.
Something nice: Her supporting cast looks good, and she does have a nice singing voice. And in her defense, this type of story has been done in this same way TO DEATH, in almost every artistic form (musicians, actors, painters, etc), so I blame the studio, screenwriter, and director as well.
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I like her nose a lot, but I just want to point out that over the years her nose has gotten more narrow and patrician. It looks good, but she wasn’t born with it.
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Just forced myself to watch it.
She is just not believable.
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Just saw the trailer for Country Strong and damn! I thought it was a fluke when I watched The Blind Side but now I realize…I am madly in love with Tim McGraw. I mean, dayum…that man is
hot and delightful.
I think Gwyneth is a good actress. I know she’s a little stuck up in real life but she isn’t hurting anybody.
Plus..she did win an Academy Award and even if some think she did not deserve it…the Academy apparently did.
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I am willing to give it a shot.
@Jen: But remember at the end of that karaoke movie when Andre Braugher did that unbelievable version of Freebird? It destroyed me it was so emotional, loved, loved, loved it. Maybe there will be a hidden gem in this movie too.
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@ meow Mix & sigh, you took the words out of my mouth.
I’m not sold on her casting either. She’s too brittle, too hard, too patrician — she lacks a common appeal. I could have seen Julianne Moore easily in this role… and light years away (though possibly too young for the role), Kristen Dunst does a better f*cked up and drunk than Gwyneth does.
Gwyneth will fail at roles like this bc she is too papped, too followed in the blogosphere, too obnoxious in her public statements… her public image is as cold and uppity as they come. I think for an actor, the best thing you could have is the mystery of who your identity, and she doesn’t have that anymore. We’re comfortable with her in the WASPy, elitist, privileged, kind of intellectual roles, but they really needed an actress who could convey a groundedness, a sense of being down home,…some one who could convey HEART.
Gwyneth does not convey “heart.”
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Wow, this movie looks terrible and GP looks really miscast. There is nothing “country” about her.
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This may the first role I actually enjoy her in and first movie she seems to be actually acting in but ill have to see it before i claim she can actually act.
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I think her singing sounds great, and I don’t think the accent is weird at all. Gwyneth is excellent at accents, I’m sure she’ll impress.
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@ jen: You are absolutely right. Goopy is way too WASPy to convincingly play white trash rednecky Southern. She just can’t pull off the look.
Just judging from the samples in the trailer, it’s ironic that she can’t master a good Southern accent. Her mother, Blythe Danner (who can also act circles around Goopy), is masterful at them.
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GP isn’t a bad actress. some of her movies are very enjoyable but this movie looks very blah. so is her acting. I see this will be another GP box office fail.
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She looks like she is miscast. I look at her and remember all those famous country chiks like Faith Hill and Shania Twain. And Gwyneth is just not them. I don’t bye her alcohol addiction. She does not look believable. I laughed at scene where Garret took bottle from her and she is like “I’m all wasted”.
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Seriously I haven’t enjoyed watching Goopy in a movie since Shallow Hal (yes, including Iron Man) so I won’t be in a hurry to see this one if ever!
Re: the southern accent – what do I know since I’m an Aussie, but can you be surprised? Goopy only knew how to do one kind of British accent when she was the IT Girl Hollyweird chased to play British characters in films instead of hiring, yes, BRITISH actresses …
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@LaLa GOOP is GP’s website
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my gosh, my first thought was that this movie was about faith hill’s life (in secret LOL). What happened to Tim Mcgraw?? Fake hair and that funky beard? EEK. This movie is absolute crap. Worse than a lifetime movie.
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How many times can this old, tired story be done? We already have Tender Mercies & Crazy Heart, we don’t need this bitch acting out her own shite version.
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I thought this was supposed to be loosly based on Faith Hill?
I don’t recall her ever being in rehab or hearing that she had an alcohol problem. If anything she seems like a mom/wife of the year.
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I agree w/Conando. The whole country singer/alcoholic is such a cliched story at this point. And Paltrow is really miscast here. Goopy as “Country Strong”? That really requires a suspension of disbelief. I’m not sure she’s good enough of an actress to overcome the image we have of her==sad to say.
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Oh god lord she is awful, awful in this clip. I can hardly believe how unbelievable she. I have nothing against Goopy as an actress…but this is bad, bad, bad. Which is a shame because everybody else looks interesting.
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I never really realized that I dont EVER see gwyenth paltrow movies. Seriously, not b/c i have anything against her personally. I fell asleep in shakespeare in love and have literally MISSED OUT on everything she has done since.
This movie would be awesome with Drew…SO amazing in Grey Gardens.
Also, dont give her too much credit for the singing, it is amazing what they do with voices these days in the studio….just saying….
Maybe I will be hungover in a hotel room and try to watch this gwyneth movie, since apparently she still works.
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Thank you. Nice website you got here. Have some more links to direct to with a bit more stuff like this?
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Golly Goopy you got a hot mess goin on…
Love the extra ten pounds, the curly hair too but that accent is horrid and the “wasted” scenes are so not believable.
I think this story more closely parallels Mindy McCready’s life…similar DD arrest, rehab but no comeback, yet!
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Kudos to that!
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