Within the curiosity of full disclosure, it must be said on the outset that “Heart Strings,” a musical drama a couple of younger couple competing in opposition to one another in a actuality TV present, was co-written (with director Ate de Jong) by Steven Gaydos, a 30-year veteran of Selection. As he has indicated right here and elsewhere, Gaydos is a person with an abiding ardour for nation and Americana music, which probably explains why, for all of the offkey moments on this passably nice however totally predictable indie, even among the clichés resound with a faint however perceptible ring of fact.
It’s nonetheless the identical outdated story, a struggle for love and glory — or, extra exactly, a contest for fame and a $1 million recording contract. Billie Carton (Maggie Koerner), a widowed upkeep attendant on the cemetery the place her conflict hero husband is laid to relaxation, and Fortunate Fontana (Sam Varga), a rubbish collector whose personal army background consists main of a short-lived stint at West Level, meet cute throughout an open mic evening at a bar in Louisville, Ky. Her set is reduce brief by an unimpressed host; he scarcely makes it by his personal tune. Nonetheless, they take a shine to one another and determine it could be a dandy concept to audition collectively for “Americana Dream,” a brand new actuality TV sequence trolling for prospects within the metropolis.
Bother is, the present solely accepts married {couples} as contestants, forcing them to pose as husband and spouse to make the reduce. (Don’t fear: The connection stays platonic till they’re genuinely smitten.) It’s solely after they’re chosen that Billie and Fortunate study they’ll be the solely couple performing earlier than the cameras whereas “a thousand influencers” decide remotely. They usually’ll be anticipated to compete in opposition to one another.
Blame it on Kingsgate Data mogul Ray Pursell (Stephan Mentioned), a personality so robustly sleazy that you just half-expect to see a cleanup crew following behind him to mop up the slime in his wake. (To his credit score, Mentioned performs the character with nearly scary conviction.) Pursell is raring — no, make that determined — to discover a new Americana star for his label now that his conspicuously youthful spouse, Valuable Blue (a well-cast Carly Johnson), is now sufficiently old to qualify as a legacy act, and depends on singing industrial jingles to complement her dwindling revenue.
You don’t need to be informed that, along with his many different sins, Pursell is a bodily abusive husband, proper? OK, let’s transfer on.
Initially, Billie and Fortunate are cynically deemed “green as a fistful of bunching onions” by behind-the-scenes videographer Lee Publish (A.J. Haynes, who ceaselessly tucks the film into her again pocket, and comes rattling close to near strolling off with it fully). However Pursell likes inexperienced — particularly in terms of Billie, whom he views as low-handing fruit he’d prefer to pluck, identical to he did years earlier with Valuable. And Fortunate? Valuable ultimately warms to the thought of being his mentor for the present, if solely so she will do some plucking of her personal.
“She’s cute,” Lee grudgingly admits. “He’s the man-child every woman wants to fix.” However Pursell views the couple in a barely completely different approach: “a happy, loving couple soon to be at each other’s throats.”
Certain sufficient, the entire thing is a set-up for drawing viewers to the spectacle of enticing and proficient younger marrieds swapping ever extra biting insults in each episode after their performances. Regardless of the actual fact Billie and Fortunate are (Are you prepared for this? Are you sitting down?) slowly falling in love for actual, their testy on-camera exchanges threaten to undermine, if not obliterate, their blooming romance. Including to their stress: They’re incessantly monitored by Lee and aspiring documentary filmmaker O.D. Orozco (Jonathan De Azevedo) by way of cameras strategically hidden all through their lavish Louisville lodge room.
Let’s face it: At this level in our multimedia tradition, satirizing actuality TV reveals is like nuking fish in a barrel. Nonetheless, “Heart Strings” often amuses in the middle of hitting simple targets, whereas confirming an entire slew of worst suspicions within the discount. Keep in mind these “thousand influencers” talked about earlier? They’re all on the Kingsgate payroll, and could be overridden within the management room.
As for the love story on the coronary heart of issues, real-life singer-songwriters Koerner and Varga, each making their film debuts, inhabit their roles with unpolished sincerity, if not technical talent. Extra essential, they’re sufficiently skilled to entertainingly promote quite a lot of unique nation/Americana songs, starting from swaggeringly bro-country anthem (“You Won’t Like Country Music”) to deliciously gospel-flavored uplift (“Love is All Life is Worth”). Varga contributed a number of of the songs, whereas others are co-written by Steve Solar (Gaydos’ nom de tune).
Director de Jong sporadically flashes archival black-and-white footage of trailblazing nation/Americana artists onto random objects (framed photographs, mansion partitions, no matter) however the impact is extra distracting than enriching. It looks like an inexpensive try so as to add cred to a film that, even throughout its enjoyable moments, too usually comes throughout as artificial and/or recycled.
Alternatively, there’s a place on the earth for formulaic diversions, and there’s a greater than even cash probability that, as Miss Jean Brodie would possibly opine, for audiences who really take pleasure in this form of music, that is the form of film they may like. Apart from, the opening credit tune, “Americana,” is sung by the Bellamy Brothers. You’ll be able to’t get extra nation than that.
