Review of The Country Girl

Seaton's film doesn't hold up as well on repeated viewings. I first watched this last year and was very impressed with the film, and its three central performances from Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly (who controversially won the Oscar over Judy Garland) and William Holden. While I still remain impressed by the engaging performances, I find much of what surrounds the three stars to be flat. The musical numbers in the play-within-a-film, "The Land Around Us" are very ordinary. No wonder Crosby's Frank Elgin receives bad reviews. Seaton doesn't really try to open up the film, adapted from the award-winning Clifford Odets play, and the result is a visually tired film. On subsequent viewings the Odets dialogue is still powerful but several exchanges feel incredibly fake. When Grace Kelly says "The theatre is mysterious" it goes against the grain of what we have already seen of her character. I seem to be bagging the film quite a lot, but I do enjoy it. Holden is excellent and gives the best performance of the film. Crosby is also very good, and Kelly, for all the criticism over her winning the Oscar gong over Garland, does a very admirable job with a difficult character. Watch it for the three stars.