Other Titles • Tender Mercies • Comeback der Liebe (1983)
Synopses for Tender Mercies (1983)
1.
While director Bruce Beresford has often dwelled on the amusing peccadilloes of southerners, in this film he has adapted his style to characters whose manners are as plain and unadorned as the landscape they inhabit. The film stars Robert Duvall as Mac Sledge, formerly an icon of country & western music, now down-and-out, a penniless alcoholic. Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), the young widow who owns the rural Texas motel where he has ended up, allows him to work off his board. As the months pass, the singer develops a bond with Rosa and her young son, experiencing the healing effects of this deeply religious woman's compassion. They become a family when she accepts Mac's offer of marriage, and he continues to rebuild his life. He attempts to see his daughter, Sue Ann (Ellen Barkin), whom he hasn't seen in years, and despite a nasty dust-up with Dixie (Betty Buckley), his ex-wife, is finally able to do so. However, the last tragedy he must confront is one that will truly test his recovery. Less a traditional story than a chain of epiphanies on faith and love, this masterpiece of low-key naturalism is arguably the finest work in the distinguished careers of both Duvall and Beresford.
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2.
Sometimes everything comes together in a movie and it becomes something so much greater than the sum of its parts that it can only be described as a miracle. That's the case with Tender Mercies, a quietly luminous character piece about an alcoholic, washed-up country singer named Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall in an Oscar-winning performance) who hits bottom in a motel room one night and then slowly finds his way back into the land of the living with the help of the widow (Tess Harper) and her young son. It's a low-key, contemplative film that feels like a rural American family comedy in the vein of the great Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu. Tender Mercies was directed by Australian Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant), written by Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), who won an Oscar for his screenplay, and has an unbeatable cast. This is one of Duvall's most intimate and deeply personal performances, matched only by his debut 14 years later as actor-writer-director in The Apostle. --Jim Emerson
3.
With his country singing career on the skids and along with life's disappointments, he hides at the bottom of a bottle. He has nowhere else to turn. But then an attractive widow and her young son arrive to help him pick up the shattered pieces. Through her love and inspiration he learns to give thanks for tender, if small, mercies.
4.
Robert Duvall stars as Mac Sledge, an alcoholic drifter who comes into the life of a lonely widow (Tess Harper) and her young son in the barren flatlands of Texas. But when Mac is revealed to be a once- famous country singer, he must confront a painful past that includes his bitter superstar ex- wife (Betty Buckley) and troubled daughter (Ellen Barkin) while facing an uncertain future that may only be redeemed by the simple power of love.
Tender Mercies is a movie experience of uncommon grace and dignity, directed by Bruce Beresford (Breaker Morant, Driving Miss Daisy) from an Oscar- winning screenplay by Horton Foote (To Kill A Mockingbird, The Trip To Bountiful) and featuring a once- in- a- lifetime performance by Robert Duvall. Nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture, this modern masterpiece is now presented in a stunning new widescreen transfer from original vault materials.
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