Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

grantss Emotional, engaging drama.An alcoholic drifter, Mac Sledge (played by Robert Duvall), finds himself in a small Texas town. He gets a job doing handyman work for Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), a widow with a 10-year old son. Over time, a relationship develops between Mac and Rosa Lee and they get married. In due course it is revealed that Mac was a famous country singer with an equally-famous country singing wife, but alcohol ended their marriage and his career. After trying to turn his back on his former life, Mac now tries to reconcile his old life with his new.Interesting story, with a large emotional content. It doesn't grab you immediately - the setup is quite dry and fairly uneventful - but the movie develops well. Once it builds up a decent degree of momentum it is quite engaging.Was heading for a very profound conclusion but ends a bit abruptly. Sort of eases out, rather than goes out with a bang. Ending is still quite emotional, but could have been better. A more elaborate and developed conclusion was in order.Superb performance by Robert Duvall in the lead role (but that is pretty much a given). Flawed, sensitive heroes with large amounts of baggage are his specialty and here he pulls out all the stops. He well deserved his Best Actor Oscar. Surprisingly, considering his incredible talent and some of the amazing performances he has delivered, this was to be his only Oscar win, though he was nominated six other times.Good support from Tess Harper. Ellen Barkin, in one of her earliest feature film roles, puts in a solid performance as Mac's daughter.

gavin6942 A broken-down, middle-aged country singer (Robert Duvall) gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.The film encompasses several different themes, including the importance of love and family, the possibility of spiritual resurrection amid death, and the concept of redemption through Mac Sledge's conversion to Christianity. Following poor test screening results, distributor Universal Pictures made little effort to publicize Tender Mercies, which Duvall attributed to the studio's lack of understanding of country music.Although I have little interest in country music, no interesting religious conversation, and almost no interest in love and family, this film still spoke to me. Duvall is just perfect, and I had no idea he could sing. For his performance along, it deserves more recognition.

tsmith417 I won't go into describing the plot because so many other people already have, but there's one thing that I don't think anyone else has touched on and I wanted to give my opinion on it.If you look at the two women in Mac Sledge's life, that's where you'll see the point of the whole story.Rosa lost her young husband to a war not long after they got married and could never find out how or even when he died. She speaks matter-of-factly about it now but she spent many years raising a son alone, doing what she could to put food on the table. She owns a run-down gas station/motel in the middle of nowhere and has practically nothing of monetary value, yet she thanks God for His tender mercies toward her.Dixie, on the other hand, is rich and famous. Even tho she too was a single mother she gave her daughter "everything money could buy." And when her daughter is killed, Dixie cries, "Why has God done this to ME?" We can only hope that, as his life with Rosa continues, Mac eventually learns to accept -- and trust -- happiness in small doses.

Michael_Elliott Tender Mercies (1983)*** (out of 4) Robert Duvall picked up the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Mac Sledge, a country music singer who finds himself broke due to alcohol. He ends up working at a small Texas gas station owned by a widow (Tess Harper) and her young son. Soon Max and the woman are married and he tries to get his life back in order and that includes trying to start a relationship with his own daughter (Ellen Barkin) who he had left years earlier. It's well known that this films original studio (Universal) were pretty much dead-set against this film and didn't bother to promote it, try to push it in theaters or anything else because they felt the film was a lost cause. I guess you could understand that because the movie is about as low-key as they come so I'm sure many people in 1983 would have been turned off by it but at the same time it's rather shocking that the studio didn't see how great Duvall was in it. The picture eventually got some Oscar nominations and became better known but I guess we should be thankful that the studio didn't completely give up on it. The main reason to see the movie is due to the performances with Duvall easily leading the way. Like Spencer Tracy before him, Duvall never gets the credit he deserves because I think he makes acting seem so easy. It rather amazing to watch someone like Duvall because of how easy they make acting seem and because of how terrific he is acting without words. There's a lot of range going on here but just watch the way Duvall doesn't use words to explain how he's feeling but instead he simply uses his eyes. The supporting cast is also very impressive with Harper standing terrific against Duvall as she too is very quiet in the film but we also know what she's feeling. The young Barkin doesn't have too many scenes here but she's impressive when on screen. Betty Buckley is wonderful as Duvall's ex-wife and Wilford Brimley is good as usual. The film's strong performances are certainly the main reason to check it out but I do think the film falls well short of being a great movie. I think the low-key nature works to a point but in the end there are a couple major turns in the story that I felt should have more of an impact but they didn't. I think the emotional range isn't quite there and at times it seems as if the movie is just too simple for its own good. I'm going to guess that the simple nature of country music is what they were trying to give us but I think it's just a tad bit too laid back. With that said, it's easy to see why Duvall won all the acclaim he did as he's certainly one of the greatest actors of all time and this is a perfect example for anyone needing to see proof of that.