If you happen to need good instruction in the perils of fame and the celebrity life, go and see this not very good film. Gywneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, a superstar Country singer who has been struggling through rehab after the traumatic loss of her unborn child in a drunken stage incident a year previously. Surrounding her are her manager / husband James, sometime lover and more-in-touch-with-real-people singer Beau, and up-and-coming starlet Chiles. So, all the elements are in place to examine a cultural minefield of clashing talents and bruised egos. The trouble is: this film does it badly.

All the main characters take it in turns to utter banal profundities whilst staring into the middle distance. They grimace, pause, shrug, sigh and stare once again. Some of the dialogue is risible. And the director, whilst layering on the clichés with a trowel, confines too much of the action to hotel bedrooms and backstage rest areas. A single scene in which Kelly visits a little boy with leukaemia comes to life and has a ring of truthful humanity. Otherwise one is forced to recoil from the vain, shallow and completely unlikeable people on show.

A few years ago Walk the Line examined the real life story of Johnny Cash, and did so persuasively by getting to grips with the psychology of the performer as well as relating the events. Country Strong fails in this: we are merely looking at a surface representation of a troubled life in the spotlight.

On the positive side the concert performances are handled with panache and the principals sing very well. It helps if you like Country music.