YMMV / Country Strong

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: A different way to view the film's message is that fame can have negative effects on people who are already dysfunctional. One should really make sure they're ready for fame before trying to pursue it, which Kelly clearly wasn't.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: There are a few fan theories that Kelly may have been abused as a child, given that the scene where she guesses the truth about Chiles's parents implies a similar situation between them.
• Anvilicious: Kelly carries around a pet baby bird, which is of course supposed to represent the baby she miscarried.
• Awesome Music: Even those who disliked the movie said that the songs were still very impressive. What's more is that the three leads all did their own singing. Kelly's final performance is indeed a powerful one.
• Cliché Storm: The Career Versus Family and Celebrity Is Overrated plot lines were accused of being this.
• Covered Up: Chiles performs a song called "Summer Girl" that appears to be an original one she wrote - and a music video was released of Leighton Meester performing some of it. It's actually an obscure Jessica Andrews song from 2005.
• Critical Backlash: Given the film's 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a few find such a low score to be quite harsh.
• Designated Hero: Despite Kelly telling us how caring and considerate Beau is, he behaves like a dick for no reason throughout the movie. He mocks Chiles for wanting to not be seen as a Brainless Beauty, freely romances her and Kelly at the same time (not to mention knowing Kelly is married) and criticises the music Chiles sings for no real reason. A deleted scene after Kelly's funeral makes him into an even bigger asshole - where he demands that Chiles abandon her career. With this scene left out, it makes Chiles's reunion with him look less like emotional blackmail.
• Ending Fatigue: Kelly has just gotten over her fears and put on a great show, making it look like the film is going to end there. She ends up dying of an overdose, dragging the film out by another ten minutes.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite the film's poor reception, Leighton Meester got near-unanimous praise for her role as Chiles.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: While it is bittersweet, Chiles apparently abandons a promising career in country music for a guy she barely knows. Exactly how is she going to make a living now? Musical Hell practically spells this out at the end of her review of the film, explaining that she’d likely end up poor and miserable and take drugs and alcohol anyway to escape her life.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Kelly visits a little boy with cancer as part of his Make-A-Wish request. Her agents tell her that all she needs to do is take a couple of photos and say hello. Instead she brings her guitar, sings him a personalised song and makes sure the young boy gets as much as he can out of the visit. It even prompts James to momentarily sweep Kelly up into a Dance of Romance.
  • Kelly's talk with Chiles where the latter confesses the truth about her parents. Kelly drops her bitchy attitude to give the young girl some sincere advice.
• Informed Wrongness: Beau criticises Chiles's songs, saying "this isn't music, it's a ride through Disneyland", and treats her singing country pop songs as something fiendishly wrong.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The songs are thought to be the redeeming part of the film.
• So Okay, It's Average: While the script is regarded as not very good and a little cliched, the performances and soundtrack are held in high regard. So consensus seems to be that it's not as terrible as the reviews would suggest.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The two female singers are Expys of Britney Spears - who was attempting to make a comeback after her very public mental health and substance abuse problems - and Taylor Swift - who was still known as a country pop singer at the time. Chiles being able to hide her past, such as her parents being in prison, shows the movie to be made before the internet was as widespread as it is today. Not to mention a lack of social media or smartphones, which would certainly have been in the singers' lives were the movie made even five years later.

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