Singing the praises of magic moments in country music films 0

"Country Strong" opens today. The music-laden melodrama tells the story of a country-music diva named Kelly Canter who should have stayed in rehab, but she and her husband- manager said, "No, no, no." And so she goes on a tour that threatens sobriety, and maybe her sanity.

Gwyneth Paltrow stars. Tim McGraw plays against his seemingly sweet nature as her hardened spouse, James.

Naturally the movie wrestles with the rootedly authentic and the seductively pop tensions of contemporary country music. In "Country Strong" this two-step is most embodied in purist crooner Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund) and beauty-queen songbird Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester).

What weakens "Country Strong" is the way it forces us to believe in its performances before our affection is earned. This is writer-director Shana Feste's second feature. Her first — "The Greatest" about grieving parents — led audience to waterworks too.

Much has been made in the lead-up to the film's release about Paltrow's pipes. She's good here. And since her turn last season as a strutting, belting subtitute teacher on "Glee," we've been sold.

Of course, how music works in movies is all about the rhythm of the narrative, its beats and pauses. The measure of many flicks comes in the incandescent moments when the film and its characters nail the gee-tar hooks; a songster's warble, growl or twang; the unrepressable energy of American-made music so vital and vivid and deeply rooted.

"Country Strong" doesn't hit those high notes enough. Here are five moments from other movies that made us shiver, grin, tap our boots.

"Walk the Line"

Johnny Cash and June Carter have yet to fall for each other when the duo performs an impromptu duet in James Mangold's winning 2005 bio- pic. But we tumble hard for the pair as Johnny coaxes June onstage with help from a chanting audience for a rendition of "Time's a Wastin'." Bonus, the movie

begins with then cleverly cuts away from the throbbing opening of "Cocaine Blues" sung at Folsom Prison.

"Coal Miner's Daughter"

Standing on a ramshackle porch rocking a baby sibling in her arms, 13-year-old Loretta Webb (Sissy Spacek) sings a brief lullaby so sweet, so promising in Michael Apted's adaptation of Loretta Lynn's autobiography, that we hanker for full-throated songs. But it's not the triumphant rendition of the title song about Lynne's Kentucky home in Butcher Hollow that seals the deal. It's when husband Dolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones) gives her a guitar instead of a long overdue wedding band for a present. The montage of Loretta teaching herself to strum while she invents lyrics is magical.

"Winter's Bone"

As we predicted last summer, teenage heroine Ree Dolly and the indie movie that follows her on a quest to find her father — a meth cooker who's jumped bail — have made it into the awards season a contender. While director Debra Granik's modern fable isn't about music, it's mindful of the Ozark milieu that feeds Ree. On her sojourn, the headstrong girl arrives at a house where a sing-along is underway. Fiddle and guitar hold high the reedy, rich beauty of Marideth Sisco's version of the traditional song "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies."

"Crazy Heart"

Last year, the role of down- and-out singer-songwriter Bad Blake won Jeff Bridges his first Oscar for best actor. And the gravel-voiced performer does a more than credible job strumming, growling, and, yes, stumbling drunkenly through Bad's honky-tonk performances. But it's the sight of the waning-then-waxing songsmith coming out the other side of a self-inflicted hell to hear his "The Weary Kind," sung by country-western superstar Tommy Sweet (performed by Colin Farrell onscreen but Ryan Bingham in truth) that hits the sharp and true note about the hard work of making music.

"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"

We wanted so badly to include Dolly Parton that we nearly defaulted to Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard" hit version of "I Will Always Love You." But the Tennessee singer-songwriter and more sang her wistful ballad to Burt Reynolds in the 1982 big-screen version of the Broadway musical.