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#568 - Tender Mercies
Bruce Beresford, 1983
A famous country singer that has fallen on hard times opts to marry a motel-owning single mother, but things are complicated connection to his estranged ex-wife and daughter.
Robert Duvall is an actor whose generally understated demeanour served to cement him as one of the most dependable character actors in modern cinema (with the odd performance that allows him to stretch his abilities, such as the eccentric helicopter squad leader from Apocalypse Now). To this end, Tender Mercies had a lot riding on it as the film where Duvall finally ended up winning a Best Actor Oscar; after all, this could be one of those films where the lead performance is the only truly worthwhile reason to watch it or might even be a sympathy vote for a film that borders on unwatchable. Fortunately, Tender Mercies avoids that particular pitfall as it gives Duvall a role that may feel like it's trying to bait awards but Duvall manages to make it a role that deserves them. Here, he plays a once-renowned country singer who starts the film as a perpetually drunk resident of a roadside motel who works out a compromise with the proprietor (Tess Harper), a young widow and single mother. He soon ends up marrying Harper in a move that seems equally romantic and pragmatic, but his past soon catches up to him when his country singer ex-wife (Betty Buckley) and his estranged daughter (Ellen Barkin) end up passing through the small town where he resides.
Duvall more than earns his accolades as he manages to play a convincing once-legendary music star (even going so far as to do his own singing) that is a very flawed human being but not without a certain charm that does make his small victories feel worthwhile and his defeats conjure up bittersweet feelings. Even so, he wouldn't quite be where he was without a decent ensemble cast backing him up - Harper is decent as the woman he marries who is constantly trying to do right by the people she cares about, while Buckley and Barkin do work well as characters that are understandably upset with Duvall without being totally unsympathetic to an audience invested in his struggles. There are a number of familiar tropes here and there, such as the up-and-coming group who drops by the station to pay him reverent lip-service, to say nothing of the nosy journalist who decides to reveal Duvall's whereabouts to a larger populace. Beresford has always been a filmmaker whose aesthetic sensibilities are in service to the story at large so there is nothing especially ostentatious about his work behind the camera. This makes for a good fit with a film that is pleasant (if bittersweet) enough to be worth watching, though not exactly a great one.
Bruce Beresford, 1983
A famous country singer that has fallen on hard times opts to marry a motel-owning single mother, but things are complicated connection to his estranged ex-wife and daughter.
Robert Duvall is an actor whose generally understated demeanour served to cement him as one of the most dependable character actors in modern cinema (with the odd performance that allows him to stretch his abilities, such as the eccentric helicopter squad leader from Apocalypse Now). To this end, Tender Mercies had a lot riding on it as the film where Duvall finally ended up winning a Best Actor Oscar; after all, this could be one of those films where the lead performance is the only truly worthwhile reason to watch it or might even be a sympathy vote for a film that borders on unwatchable. Fortunately, Tender Mercies avoids that particular pitfall as it gives Duvall a role that may feel like it's trying to bait awards but Duvall manages to make it a role that deserves them. Here, he plays a once-renowned country singer who starts the film as a perpetually drunk resident of a roadside motel who works out a compromise with the proprietor (Tess Harper), a young widow and single mother. He soon ends up marrying Harper in a move that seems equally romantic and pragmatic, but his past soon catches up to him when his country singer ex-wife (Betty Buckley) and his estranged daughter (Ellen Barkin) end up passing through the small town where he resides.
Duvall more than earns his accolades as he manages to play a convincing once-legendary music star (even going so far as to do his own singing) that is a very flawed human being but not without a certain charm that does make his small victories feel worthwhile and his defeats conjure up bittersweet feelings. Even so, he wouldn't quite be where he was without a decent ensemble cast backing him up - Harper is decent as the woman he marries who is constantly trying to do right by the people she cares about, while Buckley and Barkin do work well as characters that are understandably upset with Duvall without being totally unsympathetic to an audience invested in his struggles. There are a number of familiar tropes here and there, such as the up-and-coming group who drops by the station to pay him reverent lip-service, to say nothing of the nosy journalist who decides to reveal Duvall's whereabouts to a larger populace. Beresford has always been a filmmaker whose aesthetic sensibilities are in service to the story at large so there is nothing especially ostentatious about his work behind the camera. This makes for a good fit with a film that is pleasant (if bittersweet) enough to be worth watching, though not exactly a great one.