A Cowgirl’s Song Parent Guide

With her daddy in prison for inadvertently transporting stolen goods across state lines, Hailey (Savannah Lee May) is desperate to find a way to pay his $50,000 bail. Luckily, the teenager has musical talent, inherited from her grandmother (Cheryl Ladd), a retired country music star. When the two women join forces for a benefit concert, there are just two problems: Hailey’s stage fright and her feckless young manager, Rufus (Dodge Prince).

There are only two questions that determine whether you will like this movie. The first is, “Do you like country music?” And the second is, “Are you willing to overlook terrible acting, predictable storytelling, and poor choices if the movie looks clean?” If your answer to either of those questions is “No”, don’t watch this movie. It will make you crazy.

I must admit my biases up front: I don’t like country music. I have seen movies about country music that I have enjoyed (Wild Rose, for instance), but this isn’t one of them. A Cowgirl’s Song has the worst acting I’ve seen outside of a middle school drama class. Secondary cast members flatly quote their lines, with no attempt to either project emotion or inhabit a character. Savannah Lee May does her best and manages to inject the movie with the little charm it has but she can’t save it from the overwhelming tide of mediocrity.

Fans of clean dramas will be pleased with the film’s lack of violence and profanity and minimal sexual content and alcohol use. What is less satisfactory is the script’s ambiguity on the serious issue of gambling. I don’t want to drop any spoilers but let me be clear: this film delivers mixed messages on gambling that will frustrate parents who have strong feelings on the subject. It also offers potentially dangerous messages to young women about maintaining relationships with men who have clearly demonstrated that they are untrustworthy. I’m not condemning the concept of forgiveness (which I support) but I am concerned that the plot explicitly endorses forgiveness without also clarifying a woman’s need to protect herself from men who have shown that they will put their own wishes ahead of her needs. Forgiveness does not require continued vulnerability and that message is completely absent from the script.

Griping aside, the film is not a complete disaster and it has great messages about family unity and love. A positive subplot concerns Hailey’s little sister, Brooke (Darci Lynne Farmer), who has been disabled in a car accident. Watching her regain her confidence as she learns to barrel race again is probably the best part of the film. If you love country music (and don’t care if the lyrics are original) and want to watch plenty of good-neighborliness with a smattering of Americana, this movie could sound the right note. For me, it falls flat.