Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Country music superstar Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) enters alcohol rehab after tumbling during a concert and meets Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund), an aspiring small town country singer. Once out of rehab, she wants to give Beau a shot at the big time by having him open her comeback concert, but her husband/manager James (Tim McGraw) has chosen a beauty queen (Leighton Meester) instead.

I'm not a big fan of melodramatic stories, and this has over-the-top sappiness seeping over the edges. Writer/Director Shana Feste can't keep seem to make up her mind on what direction she wants to take the film; is it a story about a pair of up-and-coming singers or about the superstar trying to regain her footing? Overall, it's a tiring two hour experience with mediocre music and horrendous dialog.

Video Highlights

• AVC/1080p encode on a BD-50 disc
• Warm color palette
• Strong detail in close-ups
• Inky blacks
• Fine layer of film grain

Audio Highlights

• DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack
• Score brings soundstage to life
• Concerts exhibit excellent ambient effects
• Intelligible dialog

The video quality is solid, yet unremarkable, with fine detail taking center stage. Close-ups feature plenty of detail in facial pores and clothing and the inky blacks provide excellent depth. The audio track is about what you would expect from this type of film with the highlight being the concert sequences.

Bonus Materials

• Deleted Scenes
• Original Ending
• 3 Featurettes
• Music videos
• BD-Live enabled with Movie IQ

This is a very flawed film in so many ways, it's hard to recommend it. The presentation is above average but I couldn't get into any of the characters or the music, but I'm not a big country music fan to begin with.

Release Date: April 12, 2011
Studio: Sony

Movie: 4/10
Picture: 8/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS40 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Integra DTC-80.2 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PVA-PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics