Toby Keith has the smirk of success down pat. But there's a world of difference between smirking at the camera in a TV truck commercial, smirking to the beat in a country music video and smirking on cue in relation to a cast of professional actors in a full-length movie.

		'Broken Bridges' Rating: PG-13 for some violent and sexual content, and teen drinking. Starring: Toby Keith, Kelly Preston. Director: Steven Goldmann. Web site: www.brokenbridgesmovie.com/ Post-Gazette Family Film Guide: 'Broken Bridges' Related article: Keith expands horizons with film

Without one of the most successful singer-songwriters in country music history, "Broken Bridges" would probably have been a sappy script with a few good moments that never saw the inside of a cinema. With superstar Keith making his film debut in the starring role, it's a moderately budgeted full-length co-production of MTV, its country music spinoff CMT and Paramount Pictures, with a limited release that extends to one screen in Pittsburgh -- curiously, in Frazer. Hopes are that mainstream country music's growing audience will give it some life at the box office, just as Reba McEntire gave life to 1998's "Forever Love" and George Strait did to 1992's "Pure Country."

Keith stars as Bo Price, a fading country star who returns to his hometown for a funeral and confronts his childhood sweetheart and a daughter he never knew. Old animosities flash, hidden passions flare, the country singer and his punker offspring find common musical roots, and it's not giving away any secrets to say the whole uncomfortable affair ends with a big hug and a song.

Keith is at his best when his character is picking songs on the front porch. Give Bo a big romantic scene or a poignant father-daughter moment and Keith plays it, well, like a big ex-jock who became a country singer.

Fortunately for "Broken Bridges," Keith is surrounded by a solid cast. Kelly Preston has some strong moments as a workaholic single mom struggling to keep her rebellious daughter in line and as a woman scorned, struggling to keep her daughter away from the girl's estranged father. Willie Nelson walks through his cameo, and Burt Reynolds is two-dimensional in a supporting role, but 21-year-old Lindsey Haun powers through "Broken Bridges" as the country star's bitter daughter. The role requires much of the veteran film and TV actor -- her character hates her father, bonds with him and later comes to need him in an emergency.

Haun is forced to play against a star with weaker acting chops and sing with a bona-fide singing star. She pulls it all off admirably -- so well, in fact, she landed a side deal as a rostered artist on Keith's new record label, Show Dog Nashville Music, which released the soundtrack. Country fans will love it.

As a film vehicle for a music star, "Broken Bridges" works just fine. Without a novelty in the leading role, however, it plays like a sappy TV movie of the week. That's not surprising. It was written by a pair of TV screenwriters and directed by a hot-shot music video director, Steven Goldmann, making his feature film debut.