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Thanks for the memories!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a good movie, good on plot and loaded on character study and message. Robert Duvall, in an Oscar-winning role, is a has-been country singer given a second chance with a new wife and a stepson (the previous father/husband in this family had been killed in Vietnam) while his ex-wife continues a successful singing career while prohibiting him from seeing their daughter due the the fact that he used to be an alcoholic and tended to be violent when he was drunk. He attempts to reconcile with his former family, gets a second chance at his career when an aspiring band drops by the gas station where he works, and makes the most of his second chance with his new family and has to deal with a new tragedy.This is mostly a study about decisions in your life, relations with other people, dealing with tragedy, and second chances. It deserved its Oscar awards. Duvall and the rest of the superb cast was excellent, as were the songs and scenes. I loved it and you will too. *** out of ****

Reduced to a life of drunkenness, a former famous country singer finds the inspiration to turn his life around after befriending a lonely widow who works an outskirts gas station in this Horton Foote scripted drama that won Robert Duvall his only ever Oscar. Always reliable when given the right character to play, Duvall is excellent throughout and the film benefits from a memorable, emotionally charged theme song that was also nominated for an Oscar. The overall film though is never quite as compelling as Duvall's performance. While the script offers memorable dialogue ("I don't trust happiness"), it provides little in the way of plot complications for Duvall's character to overcome. Initially, a nosey reporter and a bunch of country music fans who track Duvall down seem like they might tear at old wounds, but on the contrary, they only help him to further improve. Admittedly a surprise off-screen death offers a little jolt, but in general, 'Tender Mercies' offers such an upbeat tale, done in such high spirits that it is hard to take it as anything down-to-earth or realistic. Quitting alcohol proves no challenge to Duvall; same goes for rejoining the music scene - and thus his character never really feels like he has that much to go through. As mentioned though, Duvall is superb, and in fact the entire supporting cast - especially Allan Hubbard as a surrogate son - deliver well. The film also makes country living under wide open skies look very attractive. Its positive reputation is certainly understandable, but one's mileage with 'Tender Mercies' may vary.

A gentle quiet film, wonderfully written by Horton Foote, and featuring a magnificent performance by Robert Duvall as an alcoholic ex-country singer star, who rediscovers himself by finding a family. Ordinarily this kind of upbeat view could be treacly, or seem like a Hollywood simplification. But here it's simultaneously rich and sparse, and even in a world where life is ultimately good, there are still tragedies big and small, broken hearts and terrible losses. This is that rare 'feel good' film that earns the right. The supporting work by Tess Harper and Betty Buckley is worth mentioning as well, as is Bruce Beresford's understated but always effective and evocative direction.But ultimately it's Foote's screenplay, set in a world where predictability and cliché are the usual, that manages to pull off the almost impossible and create something unique, tender, and new.

Robert Duvall was awarded an Oscar for his performance in this quiet film about a down and out country music singer who rebuilds his life in the Texas flatlands. Mac Sledge was a songwriter and singer but alcoholism and the success nearly destroyed him. Suddenly, he wakes up and changes his life at a gas station and motel in the middle of Texas highways. He falls in love with the young Vietnam widow, Rosa Lee, who lost her first husband in Vietnam and is a single mother to Sonny. Mac slowly gets off the sauce as they say. Rosa Lee doesn't know much about his past. They have a quiet relationship. They work the business and live quietly. When Mac's past comes back, he admits it to her. He has a bitter ex-wife Dixie Scott (played well by Betty Buckley) and an 18 year old daughter, Sue Ann Sledge (played by a young Ellen Barkin). Wilford Brimley plays Harry as Dixie's manager. Mac fights to keep his new life from being destroyed by his past. I would have given a 10 but I wasn't happy with what happened to Sue Ann in the film.