Gwyneth Paltrow plays a C&W star looking for a comeback in the musical drama Country Strong. (Scott Garfield/Sony Pictures)

In nearly every frame of Country Strong, there’s another, juicier movie itching to bust out. There are enough shrieking meltdowns, backstage affairs, shattered vodka bottles and glitzy rhinestone costumes on display to suggest this could have been a dynamite melodrama – Valley of the Dolls transplanted to modern-day Nashville.

The actors try valiantly to make Country Strong work, and it’s a testament to their talents that the musical numbers are as rousing as they are.

Sadly, that isn’t the story writer-director Shana Feste (The Greatest) is telling. She sets out to make a big, earnest hurtin’ song of a movie, one that centres on a self-destructive country star – is there any other kind? – on the long road back to glory. The principal performers in Country Strong act (and sing) the hell out of this material, but they can’t overcome the clichéd script, which lifts plot points from every gin-soaked music movie from Crazy Heart to The Rose.

Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a Grammy-winning singer camped out in rehab after a disastrous tour in Dallas. When we first meet her, she’s making eyes at Beau (Garrett Hedlund), a hunky orderly who spends his off-hours playing his own material at the local dive bar. The two take turns singing one of Beau’s tunes, their easy banter and flirtatious smiles hinting that country isn’t the only kind of music they’ve been making together.

Enter James (real-life country star Tim McGraw), Kelly’s manager and husband, who takes one whiff of the pheromones in the air and announces it’s time to stage a comeback tour. Not only that, James gets the bright idea to hire an ambitious young songbird named Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) to be Kelly’s opening act. Almost as an afterthought, he also recruits Beau, who agrees to be Kelly’s sponsor on the road, while training the plucky Chiles to overcome her stage fright and embrace her inner Taylor Swift.

No sooner is the tour bus locked and loaded than Kelly has a crack-up. And what a crack-up it is! Standing in front of a JumboTron and some ginormous American flags, Kelly is supposed to sing — but the moment her eyes start darting and her hands go all fluttery, it’s clear she’s going to give one of those meandering, stream-of-consciousness meltdown monologues that have been a staple in country movies from Nashville to Coal Miner’s Daughter.

This is great fun (perhaps unintentionally), and Country Strong never recovers from this early high point. Fragile Kelly is a big ol’ drag — so much so that even James and Beau can barely stand to be by her side, and her relapse splits the movie into two distinct tracks. Beau engages in heavy-duty flirtation with the rising new star Chiles, while James and Kelly spend a lot of time not talking about the tragedy that occurred the last time she toured Dallas. The latter plotline is meant to be the heart of the movie, but it’s the former that keeps your attention.

Some of this is due to simple chemistry – and Meester and Hedlund have oodles of it. But there are major storytelling problems in Country Strong that can’t be overlooked. You know the movie’s in trouble when Kelly insists on carrying a baby bird (named Loretta Lynn!) around in a wooden box that gets pulled out in key dramatic moments. The characters are also underwritten throughout. If James has truly never loved anyone the way he’s loved Kelly, then why does he recoil at her touch and spend much of the film treating her like his meal ticket? Likewise, the origins of Paltrow’s self-destructiveness are never adequately explained.

Chiles (Leighton Meester, left) is joined onstage by Beau (Garrett Hedlund)in a scene from Country Strong. (Scott Garfield/Sony Pictures)

This is a shame, because the actors try valiantly to make Country Strong work, and it’s a testament to their talents that its musical numbers are as rousing as they are. As evidenced on Glee, Paltrow has a set of pipes, and she performs Kelly’s showiest, Shania Twain-style numbers with real gusto.

She’s equally adept at playing vulnerable — though in watching her cry until mascara ran down her cheeks, I couldn’t help thinking there was some Oscar-baiting narcissism to her scenes, which possibly explains why she exudes zero warmth with either McGraw or Hedlund. Even so, Paltrow has the chops and charisma to be affecting and real in the sappiest of moments, including a quiet scene in which Kelly pays a visit to some hospital-bound children on behalf of Make a Wish.

Co-stars Meester and Hedlund, however, wind up making the most lasting impression. In one of the film’s better tunes, the heartsick duet Give in to Me, both actors display genuinely strong singing voices, and have a nice, relaxed manner on camera that makes you want to keep watching. Hedlund, in particular, manages to be appealing in even the most implausible scenes, exuding easygoing, boyish charm and delivering Waylon Jennings covers with equal aplomb.

Beau exudes the most passion for country music – he’s willing to play his songs in hole-in-the-wall bars for no money, rather than sing the manufactured pop-tinged dreck that could turn someone like Chiles into a sensation. This minor theme ends up being applicable to Country Strong as a whole. Paltrow belts, twangs and sobs her way through the movie, but it’s Hedlund who delivers the most authentic performance. Much of what goes on in Country Strong is awfully phony, but this young actor emerges as the real deal.

Country Strong opens Jan. 7.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBC News.