Underrated, give it time

I was quite impressed with this film. Every trailer I had seen looked like a happy country music romp through the love triangle of an aging star and two upstarts...

NO trailer that I saw prepared me for the depth of the characters, and the ending of course...

Aside from great songs and talented singing, I loved the honesty and rawness of the love stories:

These characters were human - morally ambiguous - not cookie cutter good girl/bad girl. Each one had something to love, something to loathe and it left me completely intrigued throughout the film.

Is James a typical heartless manager, as written in so many flawed reviews I've read? Not the way I saw it. He was conflicted, totally in love and seemingly powerless against his wife's demons and demands. He couldn't let her go out on the bottom. He wanted so badly to see the angel that he met, and in the end he loses her completely and comes out looking like a philandering money grubbing cold hearted businessman.

Kelly was played wonderfully - I completely understood why such a horrible woman still commanded so much love and admiration. The scene with Travis, for the Make A Wish Foundation - encapsulated all that James and Beau wanted to see in Kelly. As a viewer I fell in love with her all over again, even knowing all of the terrible things she had done... She was real, flawed, charismatic and confusing.

Same for Beau and Chiles. Two-sided, flawed, human... kind then hurtful, selfish then giving, attracted to more than one love and fighting to make sense of life.

I think this film deserves a second look for those of you who were caught off guard by the story. I know that a lot of people in my theatre were expecting a happy comeback tale with a love twist - "Kelly makes a comeback, struggles with her attraction to Beau but discovers, in the end, her love of her husband and her strength to be a star again!..." That is NOT this movie.

I think country is unpopular amongst Paltrow fans, and Paltrow is not popular amongst country fans, so who would see this? Plus, her Glee stint might have knocked a few credibility points off of this film... In time, I hope people will see it for a great movie with a great story and memorable characters.