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Is 'Country Strong' actually a cleverly-disguised satire?
Originally pegged as awards bait, its becoming clear that Gwyneth Paltrow's "Country Strong" will likely slip by with little more than a few nods to the original music. But does that mean the film is a wash? Hardly. It just might be 2011's first sleeper comedy.
This possibility only just occurred to us with the release of the latest clip from the Dec. 22 film, featuring Paltrow's character, Kelly Canter, awkwardly dancing across a stage to the tedious "Shake That Thing." And unless, as Jezebel suggests, this is a scene from the beginning of the movie, before her drunken antics get her sent to rehab, it most certainly has to be a joke:This does nothing for country's cred. It embodies every hilarious cliche about pop country music. Sing-song rhymes, frenzied tempo, booze references, out-of-place patriotism... all present.
It actually reminds us of another tune we recently heard. And by "tune" we mean dead-on spoof of a grossly commercial TV jingle, Jane Lynch's "Saturday Night Live" take on Faith Hill's "Sunday Night Football" intro.
Awfully similar, but then again, so is the original. And Kelly Canter is sort of a Faith Hill, only with a drug problem. They even share a love interest in Tim McGraw.
As much respect as we have for Hill, no one could convince us that she doesn't cringe every week she has to record a different version of this gem:
Are we alone in thinking this movie is starting to look ridiculous?
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Photo/Video credit: NBC, Sony
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I never thought of that, but after seeing the clip, it does seem like a credible argument. From what I've seen of the trailer, it does seem to fit the mold of a tongue in cheek comedy played straight.
I saw the movie - this dance number is in the movie for about ten seconds - mainly to show "Kelly" as an artist with a lot of hits - and this one does sound like a 90's hit for sure! But Gweneth is really good and so is the rest of the cast. The music is great and it's an entertaining story so I think you might be off the mark on this one. But an interesting argument.
Watch the film first.
You do realise the "grossly commercial TV jingle" is a Joan Jett song?
as far as Faith Hill and this football theme,she did everyone at one time and they play each one to each game. these themes were done a long time ahead of the game. it is not a comparison to the movie,but Gwyneth did watch many of Faith's videos to get the idea of her way of singing.
SalsaShark42, You do realize the song has been so preposterously reworked (and overworked) that it can't really be considered to be a JJ song anymore but is now just a sad bit of marketing cheese?