High school student Tucker (Maxfield Camp) lives on a farm somewhere in rural smalltown USA, but he has big dreams to one day move to Nashville to become a singer/songwriter in his own right. And he sure has the talent as well as the drive, and his parents (Kevin Sizemore, Kourtney Hansen) and grandfather (Lee Greenwood) support his dream, and so does his best friend Chewy (Fletcher Olson), who plans on accompanying him to Nashville as his manager. But there's still high school to master, and he also has to finally ask out the girl he has long admired from afar, Lisa (Kaileigh Bullard), a girl born into money and or the country club jet set. But when Tucker actually does ask her out to a country concert by singing sensation Cassie Jo Campbell (Alexis Gomez), she's all for it, and the sparks soon fly. The two have a romance, and suddenly going to Nashville drops further and further on Tucker's agenda, so much so that he fails to save up for it, much to the distress of Chewy - and also of Lisa's parents (Ryan O'Quinn, Kate Orsini), who have long pretty much planned for her to marry clean-cut Denny (Caleb Shore), who's also born into money and him and his parents are members of the same country club as Lisa and family. Suddenly though, Chewy is offered a lot of money by a person unknown if he gets Tucker on the bus to Nashville the very next day and sees to it that Lisa stays behind - which he only achieves by blatantly lying to both Tucker and Lisa ...

In Nashville, Tucker and Chewy soon have to learn the hard way that success doesn't grow on trees, and even after months, they have only come as far as to be the clean-up crew in a music club. Plus. Tucker's heart isn't really in it, as it's still broken from having lost Lisa. Then though he has to return to his hometown for the funteral of a family friend (Candace Randolph), and he uses that occasion to try to make up with Lisa - only to learn she has since gotten engaged to Denny, and he also finds out who it actually was who has torn them apart - and what he finds out is less than pretty ...

Ok, it probably helps to be into country music to really love this film, which I have to admit I'm not. But that said, at least some tunes actually sound not bad at all for a non-fan, and how they're included in the film, in sometimes musical-like interludes, is at least inspired. The story in the meantime for the most time follows your typical romance formula ... until it doesn't, and the film does a great job with not giving the audience the happy ending everyone had already anticipated. Acting wise, the whole ensemble does a good job at keeping things relatable, but special mention ought to go to Kaileigh Bullard as Lisa, who really steals every scene she's in, thanks to her wit and poise. So if you're not into country music and romances at all, you might to stay away from this, but with a bit of an open mind you might actually enjoy this quite a bit more than you've expected to.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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