Texas. Mac Sledge is a forgotten country singer and an alcoholic, but waking up one day in a motel after a fight, he decides to change and asks the motel owner, the widow Rose and her little kid Sonny, if he can repay his debt by working on her gas station. Mac marries Rose. Rumors of him living there attracts attention of the locals, and Mac writes a new song. He meets his ex-wife Dixie, also a country singer, whom he beat while an alcoholic, and finally meets his daughter Sue Anne (18) again. However, Sue Anne dies in a car crash. Mac returns to Rose and Sonny.
“Tender Mercies” is a movie so gentle, so honest and so humane that you feel pity that it sets out to achieve only a correct impression, instead of also reaching out towards something more—it did nothing bad, but also nothing great, either—save for one inspired monologue towards the end. Everything here is done in a subtle, understated manner, since the director Bruce Beresford tries to cultivate delicate characters and their interactions, and he gets solid support from his cast, especially in the good performance by Robert Duvall as ex-country singer Mac, who changes from an alcoholic to a noble, calm person. Even the countryside seems to tell something metaphorically, since wide shots show a desolate house in the middle of nowhere, congruent to Mac’s state of isolation from others as an alcoholic. However, the story never amounts to some outstanding moments, whereas certain parts in it seem underdeveloped: when Mac and Rose are gardening, and he proposes to her, without any previous hint at their love interest, already 13 minutes into the film, the whole thing feels unearned, almost like kind of a cheat towards the audience. Likewise, Mac’s revival as a country singer is hinted at, but also leads to a dead end, almost as a misleading subplot. Little things happen, but a sudden death in a car crash feels like it came from a soap opera. “Tender Mercies” is an honorable movie—and yet an unmemorable one. However, one line near the end surpasses the rest of the film to reach greatness, the only aspect of the entire film to do so, when Mac stops gardening and talks to Rosa: “I don’t know why I wondered out to this part of Texas drunk, and you took me in, married me. Why did that happen? Is there a reason that happened? And Sonny’s daddy died in the war, my daughter killed in an automobile accident. Why? See, I don’t trust happiness. I never did.”
Grade:++
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