What’s Aged the Worst?
Tim McGraw's underwritten husband; dismissal of Chiles's pop crossover; no social media for Kelly's drunk bar performance; Bo's disheveled oversized clothes; dry-bar barrel-curl hair and 2010 styling; the reviews
In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:18Read transcript
- The movie is dismissive of the Leighton Meester character going outside country music to find success, which is dead wrong about how the last ten years worked.
- Tim McGraw is given little to work with: an unlikable character with confusing motivation, 100% responsible for his wife's death.
- The character needed more on stage as a former star, or a recast; there is little chemistry and it is hard to believe they were married.
- Dissent: one host bought the marriage and says they watch the whole movie with rose-colored lenses.
- He flirts with Meester and visits her hotel room, though he is not cheating on Kelly, who sleeps with others including her tour manager.
- Alternative fixes: make him cartoonishly evil like the Shawshank warden, or a former country star who lost his voice and sings with her near the end; the Star Is Born formula works.
- No social media for Kelly's drunk bar performance, though there were cell phones in 2010.
- A proposal to make Kelly 25% drunker and meaner is contested since she already hits Tim McGraw; others agree the movie keeps the safety rails on, e.g. her tour-manager hookup stays clothed.
- The speaker's wife's note: Bo's disheveled oversized clothes.
- Contender: the dry-bar hair of side part, straightened bangs and big barrel curls, which the speaker wore to every dance for the next six years.
- The hair is of the dry-bar moment and also a country-music aesthetic of tall blonde women such as Carrie Underwood and Faith Hill. — Amanda Dobbins
- Gwyneth goes from straight hair to full barrel curls within two minutes, a two-hour process; tiny bandage dresses, peplum and heavy under-eye liner are circa 2010.
- The reviews: a Guardian quote mocks Paltrow singing her own material in a self-indulgent movie, and a New York Times quote finds her seriously miscast as an unreformed alcoholic with a thin, serviceable voice.
- A Hollywood Reporter quote: cliches plucked from country lyrics fuel an unconvincing show-business story that is hard to synopsize.
- A Boston Globe quote: the film ends nine times, and Festi mistook her protagonist for Lindsay Lohan or Courtney Love; its writer, Wesley Morris, has since warmed to the movie.