Movie Reviews

Gimme that ol' time religion, a new putter

 
Lucas Black on the horse and Robert Duvall on the bag.  (Visio Entertainment)

Seven Days in Utopia

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Running time: 96 minutes

MPAA rating: G (suitable for all audiences)

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"Seven Days in Utopia"

In a perfect cinematic world, a utopia, if you will, a wise, world-weary Robert Duvall on a horse would be quite enough to ignite dramatic sparks.

Utopia, however, is imagined perfection; an unobtainable, if noble, pilgrimage to a non-existent place.

"Seven Days in Utopia," lensed in the real Texas Hill Country hamlet of Utopia (85 miles northwest of San Antonio), features a somewhat real-life world-weary Duvall on a horse.  

Unfortunately, that is not enough to provide inspirational, not to mention entertaining, cinema.

Based on David Cook's book "Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia," the big-screen version is a warm-hearted call to religion with professional golf and the sleepy Texas Hill Country as a backdrop.

It plays like an uneasy mixture of "Tin Cup," which featured Kevin Costner as an imploding golfer on tour, "The Karate Kid" and summer Bible school at the First Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, TX, which I attended in my youth.

Lucas Black, reuniting with Duvall after sharing the screen in "Sling Blade" and "Get Low," portrays troubled golfer Luke Chisholm.

There is no gospel, according to Luke.

Browbeaten by his father into becoming the next young sensation on the pro golf tour no matter what, the Waco native has a meltdown on the course, breaks his putter over his knee and drives off to somewhere, anywhere to heal his deep emotional wounds.

Quite by chance, it would seem, he winds up in Utopia, TX.  Johnny Crawford, not the actor-singer who played "The Rifleman's" son on TV in the late '50s-early '60s, but a beloved town character played by Duvall, takes the young man under his wing.  

Seeing something of himself in Luke, Johnny offers to teach the lost soul in golf spikes the proper way to play golf in a week.  He also tosses in how to get your head right and how to make the Bible a companion and life guide, although the life lessons come semi-stealthly and as an added bonus.

"Seven Days in Utopia" would work better as a G-rated golf ball swatter, Bible-thumper if an experienced director, like Duvall, for instance, took on added duties as director.  Duvall directed himself to a best actor Oscar nomination in 1997 as a Texas preacher in "The Apostle."

First-timer Matt Russell, a visual effects coordinator sliding into the directing chair, appears more concerned with how things look (and there are some gorgeous shots) than how flat and hokey scenes are playing.

Duvall is fine, although uninspired, in a role he could play in his sleep.

Co-star Black, though, acts like he is sleep-walking much of the time.  If Black has another facial expression other than the stone-faced one on display throughout here, I'd love to see it.
 
Some will call "Seven Days in Utopia" sentimental hokum that means well and speaks from the heart, but -- like the lightning bugs trapped in a jar in a slightly strained life lesson scene -- fails to ignite into memorable cinema.

I, unfortunately, am among those naysayers.

From this aisle seat, this is a difficult stance to take for three reasons.

(1) Duvall has deeply moved me emotionally and intellectually throughout much of my 31-year career as a film critic.  I will never forget Duvall's broken-down country-singer/songwriter Mac Sledge in "Tender Mercies" (1983).  Sledge convinced me when he said, "I don't trust happiness.  I never did, I never will."

(2)  This is a small-budget film obviously made with a lot of love for God, film making and the Texas Hill Country.

(3)  After over three decades offering my opinion on movies to anyone who would listen, read or watch, this is my final review of a debuting film.

(More on that to come soon.)

'The Help' wanted, very wanted

 
Skeeter (Emma Stone), left,  and Aibileen (Viola Davis) as unlikely cohorts in "The Help."  (Walt Disney)

The Help

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Running time: 146 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (thematic material)

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"The Help"

Every once in a while a movie comes along that's daring enough to lift the lid covering the grisly history of mistreatment of black people in this country up just enough for movie-goers to take a clear, often painful look at reality.

In 1985,Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" drew an Academy Award nomination for Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, a mentally and physically abused victim of incest first seen as a teenager and followed for 30 years.

"Precious," ironically also about an incest victim having a second child, moved the struggle against social injustice into modern-day Harlem.  Like Goldberg, newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who portrayed the mentally tortured title character, made the short list of Oscar nominees, but did not win.

"The Help," based on Kathryn Stockett's best selling novel of 2009, operates in the same downtrodden arena. This time, though, there's a buoyancy of levity to ease the blows as snooty white society "ladies" mistreat their nannies and maids in 1960s Jackson, Miss.

Here's what those who dearly love Stockett's novel need to know first:  Don't worry.  "The Help" is, in my semi-humble opinion, one of the finest films of 2011.

If you don't fight back tears, laugh out loud and want to stand up and cheer more than once, it might be a good idea to have someone check you for a pulse.

Director Tate Taylor worked with Stockett, his longtime pal on this project.  They grew up in Jackson, Miss., so capturing the mood of the era is never a problem.  And there's this.  This project was churning along as a movie-in-the-works before the author even found a publisher for the novel.

For that reason, "The Help" deserves a break from the usual concerns the transition from novel to big-screen of hugely popular books ("Harry Potter," "Twilight," "Eat, Pray, Love") usually stir up.

Viola Davis, who earned an Oscar nomination for brief screen time opposite Meryl Streep in "Doubt," graces this inspiring tale of courage throughout.  Davis turns in a brilliant, understated performance as Aibileen Clark, a Mississippi maid and nanny who has raised 17 white children of employers.  During that long stretch of low-pay servitude, Aibileen saw her only child die needlessly.

Reluctantly, Aibileen reveals the secrets, struggles and sacrifices it takes to be a black servant in white households in the racist '60s Old South.  She gradually opens up to Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a recent Ole Miss grad who dreams of being a writer.  Skeeter, gradually standing up to her racist grownup of childhood pals, might just have an ear for a novel about black maids willing to tell all.  A New York City magazine editor is intrigued.

This may sound like grim subject matter, and it certainly is at times.  Armed with a smart, inspirational script he co-wrote, however, director Taylor ("Pretty Ugly People") uses the comic talents of Octavia Spencer ("Dinner for Schmucks"), who plays Minny (Aibileen's best friend), and others to garnish the difficult subject matter with effective Southern fried humor.

"The Help" is what I used to call a station-wagon movie.  We can update that now to call it an SUV movie.  That means gather as many friends and family members as you can pack into your car, van or sports utility vehicle and get to the movie house to see a spectacular crescendo of emotions likely to sweep you off your feet.

When you steady yourself, you might discover you're in a better place; a place of acceptance, compassion and understanding.

Grieve it to 'Beaver'

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) and, uh, friend. (Summit Entertainment)

The Beaver

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Running time: 91 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (Mature thematic material, some disturbing content, sexuality and language including a drug reference)

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"The Beaver"

You heard the raging telephone tapes. You thought you had your mind made up about Mel Gibson, didn't you?

Well, not so fast, at least from the artistic standpoint. The man who may be Mad Max in real life, the man who has a Best Director Academy Award statuette on his mantel for "Braveheart" still has plenty to give when those troubled blue eyes stare into a movie camera.

Gibson and old pal and former co-star Jodie Foster ("Maverick") team up for something exceeding daring and pretty special with the dark, dark, dark depression drama titled "The Beaver."

We're talking two two-time Oscar winners. Still, "The Beaver," which Foster apparently lobbied to direct, is the kind of movie that turns a movie studio head's toupee prematurely gray.

Fractured families trying to heal themselves (or not) are not exactly strangers to a movie marquee. But this one wallows in the kind of rotted family tree you might find after turning over a rock, like Sam Mendes' Best Picture Oscar winner "American Beauty" of 1999.

Family man Walter Black (Gibson) suffers so deeply from depression that the doctors can do nothing for him. All the former toy company CEO -- who inherited the company from a father he hated and ran it into near-bankruptcy -- does is sleep.

The wife (performed with stunning quality by Foster) finally has enough and kicks him out. Walter is even lousy at suicide attempts. But when he retrieves a beaver hand puppet from a trash bin, suddenly Walter, who has lost his will even to communicate, finds a voice.

Not his voice, exactly, but a spokes-beaver with a guttural British accent.

Talk to the hand has probably never been used quite this literally in a motion picture. The outrageous, compelling screenplay comes from first-timer Kyle Killen, who lives in Austin.

In addition to Gibson, rising-star actor Anton Yelchin ("Star Trek," "Terminator: Salvation") is also superb as Porter, Walter's almost equally-depressed son. While the dark drama plays out among Meredith (Foster), Walter and The Beaver (even in bed), Porter is suffering through a complicated relationship with a high school cheerleader.

Norah, brainy but troubled as well, is portrayed very well by Jennifer Lawrence, the Best Actress Oscar nominee for her tremendous work in "Winter's Bone."

News of Gibson's telephone rants to Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of his child and ex-girlfriend, didn't surface until after "The Beaver" was shot. So feel free to read whatever you will into what fueled Gibson's rage-filler performance here.

The fact is it's a kick-in-the-gut moving performance from an actor who has never lacked for verbal intensity throughout his long career. Foster, who is outstanding both in front of and behind the camera, is to be applauded for the emotional explosion she captures in only her third directing effort.

In a town and a career where image is everything, it takes guts to put on a beaver hand puppet and bare a soul, even if the depression and rage might be partially fired from the actor's own torment.

"The Beaver" will probably not appeal to many mainstream movie fans.

For those able to separate an actor's personal life from what he leaves on a movie screen, though, "The Beaver" is dam good.

Circus love is intense, in tents

 
Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) and Jacob (Robert Pattinson) can't fight the feelings. (20th Century Fox)

Water for Elephants

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Running time: 120 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (moments of intense violence and sexual content)

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 "Water for Elephants

It may not pitch its tent as one of the greatest circus shows on Earth, but "Water for Elephants" looks and feels like one of them.

Based on Sara Gruen's 2006 bestseller, "Water for Elephants" revolves around three conflicted Depression-era characters: Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), the animal loving star attraction, Jacob (Robert Pattinson), a lost soul who happens upon a circus train chugging through the night, and August (Christoph Waltz) as circus owner and ringmaster.

Wait, what about Big Al?

Sorry, novel lovers, but Big Al, the lion tamer and Marlena's abusive husband in the book, has been combined with August in the movie.

"I just finished the novel last night," one of my Richland College students told me this week. "I can't wait to see the movie."

I hope my student is OK with the transition (and there are others). Like all novel readers, however, she must realize that books and movies are two very different animals.

It all comes down to simple math, really. The book takes about a dozen hours to consume. Movie makers must condense and combine to tell a story in about two hours.

"Water for Elephants" is at its best when it recreates the desperate times of the Great Depression. Thanks to fine work from director of photography Rodrigo Prieto ("Amores Perros"), director Francis Lawrence ("I Am Legend") is able to quickly set the mood.

It's 1931. Jacob, a Cornell University veterinary student, is taking his graduation exam when word comes of a family tragedy. All is lost, so Jacob wanders the railroad tracks. Late at night, a lonesome whistle blows and puffs of approaching smoke offer shelter.

Although he doesn't know it yet, Jacob has hitched a ride on the Benzini Bros. Circus train. Morning reveals the wonders of roustabouts setting up the big top, a beautiful, mysterious star attraction named Marlena and August, who's just as quick with a big smile as he is with jealousy and rage.

I haven't read the book. I prefer to let a movie blossom on its own terms without fretting over combined characters and the like.

That said, "Water for Elephants" is fairly predictable. Jacob falls for the married Marlena, of course. August's rage knows no bounds, so danger lurks around every pile of circus animal manure.

This film is so beautiful to look at, though, that it can be forgiven for telegraphing its shots.

Waltz, the Oscar-winning gleefully sadistic Nazi of Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," portrays a similar character here. Don't blame the actor, however. Waltz is just giving his director what the character demands. With that in mind, I appreciated his performance more.

Pattinson, the London-born vampire heartthrob of the "Twilight" franchise, forgoes the pale pallor and the swooning delivery to really dive into an American character. While not exactly Academy Award worthy, Pattinson (who can act) doesn't embarrass himself in the role.

In fact, if anyone in the cast disappoints, it's Witherspoon, the leading lady. Her performance as June Carter Cash opposite Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the Line" earned her a Best Actress Oscar in 2006.

From this aisle seat, however, Witherspoon never fully connects with Marlena. It's difficult to explain, but she maintains an icy stiffness, even during scenes where she should come across as a warmer individual.

And, let's not forget the elephant in the room, or I should say, the big top. Tai is magnificent as Rosie the Elephant, a booze-lover that steals the show from about the mid-point.

Ronan excels again as survival child 'Hanna'

 
Saorise Ronan springs into action as "Hanna."  (Focus Features)

Hanna

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Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual material and language)

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 "Hanna"

This "Hanna" isn't hard-hearted.

But the innocent looking teen home schooled in a frozen forest played by Saoirse Ronan knows how to gut a deer and take care of herself in extreme  circumstances.

That's just what Hanna runs up against in a fast-paced survival drama co-starring Eric Bana and directed by Joe Wright, who directed Ronan in "Atonement."  That was her breakout film of 2007.

In "Hanna," Ronan excels as a mystery girl fiercely protected by Erik (Bana) and sequestered in a log cabin deep in the snowy woods.

Erik is her protector, her educator and her sparring partner.  But as Hanna, quite familiar with hunting and hand-to-hand combat, matures, Erik tells her it's time to decide for herself what to do next.

Curious about life beyond the forest, Hanna makes a choice to let her whereabouts be known.  That sends Erik, a former CIA operative,  into deep hiding.

It also causes quite a stir at CIA headquarters.  A high-level CIA agent played by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett would like very much to see Hanna and Erik dead, it seems.

"Hanna" is a coming-of-age road picture that veers off the beaten path into unconventional territory, to say the very least.

As the pint-sized teenage lethal weapon fights her way to a reunion with Erik, she hitches a ride with a holidaying British family.  The world opens up for Hanna then; a first-kiss, the mystery of television and electricity.

Ronan, who turned 16 during the making of this film, is already an accomplished actress.   She earned an Academy Award nomination as the accuser in "Atonement" and carried Peter Jackson's surreal beyond-death drama "The Lovely Bones" in 2009.

In "Hanna," Ronan gets to flex her sparring muscles and her acting skill.  There is no question that she's up to the challenge.

Blanchett ("Robin Hood," an Oscar winner for "The Aviator"), who'll co-star with Ronan again in Jackson's "The Hobbit," is cold as ice in this one.  Her persona is so cold-blooded, in fact, that if Blanchett's character had scenes at the snow-covered cabin (beautifully shot in Finland), the frozen tundra would have no chance of thawing come summer.

Bana, the accomplished Australian actor of "Funny People," "Star Trek" and "The Time Traveler's Wife," does an admirable job of letting a young co-star bask in the acting spotlight here.  Bana's very good.  This just isn't his movie.

"Hanna" isn't a great film, but it is great fun.

Even though you'll be able to see the line coming a mile away Hanna utters at the conclusion of the inevitable confrontation near the closing credits, it's always a thrill to see acting this good in what would otherwise be a routine dramatic-thriller.

Finally, McConaughey returns to drama

 
Matthew McConaughey is back in a suit and tie and a courtroom.  (Lionsgate)

The Lincoln Lawyer

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Running time: 119 minutes

MPAA rating: R (Violence, sexual content and language)

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 "The Lincoln Lawyer"

It's good to see Matthew McConaughey acting again.

I mean really acting, as opposed to yanking his shirt off in semi-entertaining comic adventures that, like the shifting sand in "Sahara," have little foundation as solid memories.

In the dramatic-thriller "The Lincoln Lawyer," McConaughey doesn't exactly return to a serious courtroom drama on the level of "A Time to Kill," the crusading lawyer drama of 1996.

Even though he's dressed like an adult -- suit and tie; appropriate courtroom attire -- this time, a bit of the McConaughey swagger remains evident as Mick Haller.  A Beverly Hills ambulance chasing attorney, although that's only implied, Haller operates out of the back seat of his chauffeured Lincoln Continental sedan.

There's a throwaway line or two about when Haller got his license to drive back.  I suspect that aspect of the character is better explained in Michael Connelly's bestseller of the same title.

The adaptation by John Romano ("Nights in Rodanthe") is a little sloppy on details, preferring instead to showcase Haller's coolness in a courtroom, on the streets where a motorcycle gang (led by country crooner Trace Adkins, no less) is prone to pull him over for some lawyer-client chatting and, of course, with the ladies.

This would be a much better thriller if "The Lincoln Lawyer" more closely mimicked -- Sorry, I mean paid homage to -- "The Verdict" and "Fracture," both of which deserve a slice of the profits.

Haller is a hard drinking attorney.  He has has made mistakes in the past, but is honorable enough to fight to try to make things right.  That's just like Paul Newman did in "The Verdict" in 1982, although the case details vary.

The other strikingly similar element is the old attorney/client tete-a-tete.  In this one, a wealthy client played by Ryan Phillippe is up on an attempted murder charge.  As the plot thickens, an all-too-common game of cat and mouse shows signs of becoming deadly.  

If you saw "Fracture" in 2007, you know that Anthony Hopkins admitted to shooting his wife in the head, then dared the assistant district attorney to do something about it.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" works best as an entertainment ride.  Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler," "Cyrus") works well with McConaughey as Maggie, his ex-wife and crusading assistant D.A.  (Small world, this.)

By the time the final gavel falls, it's quite apparent that McConaughey, who only takes his shirt off once, is well aware of where he's at.  More important, though, is where he might be going.

The hard-working Texan who began his career Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," then sort of got that way in mid-career, finally appears back on track.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" is flawed cinema at best.  But sometimes, on a purely entertainment level, the old "Lincoln" purrs across the screen.

Hopkins gets exorcism 'Rite'

 
Anthony Hopkins, left, and Colin O'Donoghue are on a mission from God.  (New Line Cinema)

"The Rite"

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Running time: 112 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (Disturbing thematic material, violence, frightening images and language, including sexual references)

 

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 "The Rite"

Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, as the old saying goes, but it's everything in "The Rite."

Anthony Hopkins slings some holy water in an exorcism thriller that ranks as horror only because it's based on real events.

It's interesting that Swedish director Mikael Håfström cast Hopkins in the role of eccentric, legendary priest Father Lucas.

Some would say -- and I would be right there with them -- that Hopkins played hop-scotch with the devil himself as cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," his Oscar-winning role of 1991.

Hopkins' veteran exorcist character is the axle that drives the wheel in "The Rite."  He's not, however, the leading man.  That would be relative newcomer Colin O'Donoghue, the Irish actor who appeared in "The Tudors" on Showtime.

O'Donoghue portrays Michael Kovak, a U.S. seminary student with, shall we say, issues.  Never intending to become a priest, Michael ran to the church to get away from his undertaker dad (Rutger Hauer), who, if not possessed himself, definitely spiked the wacky meter.

Not-quite-Father Kovak is chosen for Vatican exorcism class in Italy despite his doubting ways.  Once there, while arguing that most "possessed" souls might just be in serious need of some psychiatrist couch time, Michael meets a fetching female journalist ("City of God" co-star Alice Braga) and the aforementioned Father Lucas.

"The Exorcist," of course, is the film by which all serious exorcism films must be judged.  "The Rite" falls short of that film's now-famous showiness.  Looking for pea-soup projectile vomiting and head-spinning?  You're in the wrong place.

Instead, "The Rite" creeps up on you and might just creep you out.  It's based within the actual framework of what the ageless fight between good and evil, God and Beelzebub is all about.

And there's this:  Hopkins can still get it done when he's got a meaty script to dive into.  And he's got one here.

"The Rite" isn't a great exercise in cinematic exorcism.  It is, however, a powerful enough piece of possession-related drama that'll have you gripping the armrest of your seat tighter than usual.

Recession depression & inhuman resources

 
Tommy Lee Jones, left, and Ben Affleck as "Company Men."  (The Weinstein Company)

The Company Men

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Running time: 115 minutes

MPAA rating: R (language, brief nudity)

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"The Company Men"

Think "Up in the Air" without the funny stuff.

And, believe it or not, more job loss fall-out heartache.

"The Company Men," starring an exemplary acting ensemble led by Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones, deals with the guys in the cushy corporate offices when the designer rug is pulled out from under them.

Writer-director John Wells, executive-producer of the long-running "ER" TV series, actually wrote the "Company Men" for the previous recession.  For those a little behind in their recession knowledge, that was the early '90s one.  

Thank goodness Wells pulled the script out of the drawer when this current deep depression began to grip the country.  "The Company Men" opens on Sept. 15, 2008, when the Dow took an 800-point dip and proud working men and women began to clean out their cubicles and head for what  my grandfather Wally used to call the unemployment office.

I won't lie to you.  This was a very difficult movie for me to watch.  My professional world was rocked by the serious economic downturn, just as three central characters are here.  Yet in a complicated, odd way, going through the process of watching the cinematic events unfold -- as deeply painful as they are -- may have helped my personal healing process.

Corporate sales exec Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), who works for fictional shipping conglomerate GTX, is blind-sided by his lay-off.  So are Gene McClary (Jones), the company's No. 2 man, and top executive Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), who scratched his way up from the factory floor to a corner office.

What "The Company Men" does that "Up in the Air," last year's dark comedy about lay-offs, did not is follow the men home.  These men have lost their jobs, their security, their sense of worth, their social status, their financial stability and, in some cases, their reason to live.

Affleck's character tries to hide the devastating unemployment news from his extended family.  Cooper's screen wife (Maryann Plunkett) makes him get dressed and leave the house every morning as if he's going to work.  She can't stand suffering embarrassment at the hands of the neighbors.

If you get the idea that "The Company Men" is a dismal affair, you've earned your movie merit badge for the month.  And, although the cinematography by Roger Deakins ("True Grit") is marvelous, the plot line and tone wobbles a little near the end.

So why should anyone go see it?

It is magnificently acted, for one thing.  I've never seen Affleck better in front of a camera.  Jones turns in his usual acting brilliance.  Also, Maria Bello (who appeared in 25 episodes of "ER" as Dr. Anna Del Amico) is very good as GTX's head of human resources.  She's a driven female exec who often disappears for long, uh, lunches with Jones's character.

Then there's Kevin Costner.  He plays Affleck's house-building brother-in-law.  Costner excels as blue-collar comic relief.  He's a blunt-talking good soul who works with his hands and oozes compassion from his heart.

If that's not enough, go see "The Company Men" for the Chris Cooper performance.

A supporting actor Academy Award winner for "Adaptation" in 2002, Cooper plays his aging executive character like a frightened, desperate man with a time bomb tied to his chest.

The three central characters all feel like that at times.

It's a desperation not uncommon in the real world either, bub.

'Country' pity party stirs up familiar sawdust

Gwyneth Paltrow and Garrett Hedlund go for country music-themed drama. (Screen Gems)

"Country Strong"

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Running time: 112 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (thematic elements involving alcohol abuse and some sexual content)

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"Country Strong"

Don't look for tender mercies, or for that matter Robert Duvall's Oscar-winning "Tender Mercies," in "Country Strong."

On the negative side, this riches-to-rags pity party with country music features a great country music star (Tim McGraw) who doesn't sing and an Oscar-winning movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow) who isn't a great crooner but warbles anyway.

So "Country Strong" launches with two strikes against it. Three, actually, counting McGraw's glaringly bushy head-rug.

No, make that four strikes. Sophomore director Shana Feste ("The Greatest"), who also wrote an uninspired script,should have her two-stepping license revoked.

Sheasks co-star Garrett Hedlund to commit country music hari-kari by attempting Merle Haggard's legendary "Silver Wings" in the opening scene.

Still, "Country Strong" rumbles along its predictable "singer way down on his/her luck hitting rock bottom" path with some appeal. That comes mainly from McGraw (a genuine country music and acting force), Hedlund (once he shakes the "Silver Wings" pain) and Leighton Meester, who plays a former Miss Dallas who longs for country stardom.

The movie itself wavers between a made-for-TV vibe and something deeper, an attempt to capture the darkness and unrelenting pain of a country music divatoo boozed up and mentally messed up to warble for her forgiving masses.

Despite being an accomplished actress and an Academy Award winner for "Shakespeare in Love" in 1998, Paltrow doesn't quite possess the acting chops to wallow in the misery of a wounded star bottom-feeding in liquor bottles because of a stage accident that ended in family tragedy.

Despite the wobbly beginning, Hedlund ("Troy") slowly won me over as Beau, a country singer by night and rehab counselor (attendant?) by day. The camera loves this rising star. The same can be said for Meester ("Gossip Girl" on TV), the Texas native who plays career-driven Chiles Stanton.

McGraw, who should drop-kick whomever suggested that particular toupe, countinues to amaze on screen after a start in the feature film version of "Friday Night Lights."

Paltrow is adequate, but nothing more in a showcase role that should move audiences more.

Even though "Country Strong" kicks up familiar story sawdust on a well-worn cinematic honky-tonk dance floor, it's entertaining enough for a look, especially for country music fans.

The Dude, not The Duke in Coen's 'True Grit'

 
Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn.  (Paramount Pictures)

"True Grit"

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Running time: 110 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images)

 

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 "True Grit"

Saddle up, "True Grit" fans.  Here's some bold talk from a two-eyed fat man.  

I say hold your horses, Joel and Ethan Coen.  If you're taking on John Wayne and remaking "True Grit" (1969), the iconic Western that provided The Duke with his sole Best Actor Academy Award, you could at lest get the eye patch right.

Wayne's U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn sported his eye patch on the left eye.  The current "True Grit" production notes state that the writing/directing Coen siblings let their Rooster Cogburn, Oscar's reigning Best Actor Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), choose which eye should get the patch.

Bridges got it right, which is wrong.

Isn't that a little like asking newcomer Hailee Steinfeld (who's out-of-this-world sensational as 14-year-old Mattie Ross) if she'd rather wake up snoozing rattlesnakes or hibernating bears when she tumbles into a cave in the final reel?

Some things are sacred. I'm a huge Coen Bros. fan.  But there's no reason to dis The Duke.   Not that it really matters much, I suppose.  There was no eye patch in Charles Portis' "True Grit" novel, originally serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1968.

So the Coens ("O Brother Where Art Thou"," Oscar winners for "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men") give us The Dude (Bridges' character in the Coens' "The Big Lebowski") instead of The Duke.

For those unfamiliar with the Western tale, Mattie (Steinfeld) travels to Fort Smith, Ark. in 1878 and hires hard-drinking, coarse-talking Marshal Cogburn (gravelly voiced Bridges) to track down her father's killer, Tom Chaney.  Chaney (Josh Brolin) has fled into Indian Territory.

The forthright young teen, bearing the brassiness of a seasoned adult, forces herself on Cogburn for what will become justice, not to mention the adventure of a lifetime.

There's a third member of the abbreviated posse.  Matt Damon turns in a strong performance as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who's after Chaney for reward money for killing a Texas politician.

Let's just say I have no quarrel with Damon's LaBoeuf.  Of course almost any warm thespian body would compare favorably to singer Glen Campbell's stiff turn as the Texas Ranger in the original.

If you've seen any Coen Bros. movie, you know that these guys are no slouches.  Their "True Grit" is visually stunning (Jess Gonchor, production designer) and a wonder to behold on a big screen thanks to Oscar-nominated director of photography Roger Deakins ("O Brother Where Art Thou?").

My problems with the remake -- excuse me, new translation of the original novel -- have to do with things the Coens do they simply can't seem to avoid.  Like the dialog, for instance.  In an attempt to capture the novel's almost poetic cowboy vocal style, what we see in their movie comes off as over stylized and too formal.

There are outstanding elements, of course.  My hat's off to the Coens for finding young teen Steinfeld to play  Mattie.  Steinfeld, a newcomer, was only 13 when she got into costume and character for Mattie in Texas (Granger, just outside of Austin) and New Mexico.

Bridges is very good as Cogburn.  But I couldn't help wondering what Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones (who co-starred in "No Country for Old Men") would have done with Rooster.

I bet if Jones gave Rooster a go, the eye patch would have remained on the right left eye so as not to dishonor The Duke.

Sorry, Dude.