THE
TENDER BAR Ben Affleck as Uncle Charlie / Tye Sheridan as J. R. Moehringer Lily Rabe as Dorothy Moehringer / Christopher Lloyd as Grandpa / Daniel Ranieri as Young J. R. Moehringer / Rhenzy Feliz as Wesley / Briana Middleton as Sidney / Max Casella as Chief Directed by George Clooney / Written by William Monahan, based on the memoir by J.R. Moehringer |
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If you want to witness how a single performance can help to greatly elevate a relatively middling drama then look no further than THE TENDER BAR, the new Amazon Prime original film based on the 2005 memoir of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and writer J.R. Moehringer. The film tells an
obligatory, dime-a-dozen themed coming of age tale that seems cherry picked
from better elements from so many other finer examples of the genre, which
leads to the end result here coming off as somewhat pedestrian and lacking
in innovation. Yet, one huge
ace up director George Clooney's sleeve here is a wonderfully modulated
and straight shooting supporting performance by Ben Affleck, who
demonstrates here as he did with turns in the recent THE
LAST DUEL and his terribly undervalued 2020 sports drama THE
WAY BACK that he's on a serious career comeback journey.
Affleck makes the routine material in THE TENDER BAR resonate more
than it probably would have under a lesser talent's hand. And maybe some
props should go out to Clooney the director as well, seeing as with last
year's decent sci-fi thriller THE
MIDNIGHT SKY and now this he's on a modest filmmaking comeback
himself, especially after starting his directorial career so promisingly
with CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND and GOOD
NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK in the mid 2000s, only to make multiple less
than memorable films after that. He
teams up well with writer William Monahan (who penned Martin Scorsese's THE
DEPARTED way back when) to adapt Moehringer's genuinely feel-good,
comfort food memoir about his early childhood to adulthood times with his
dysfunctional family in Long Island of the 70s and 80s.
We've all seen films like THE TENDER BAR so bloody many times
before that it would be easy to quickly dismiss it if it weren't so well
suffused with authentic heart-warming sentiment and, yes, rock solid
performances. I also latched
on to the fact that THE TENDER BAR is about blue collar, working class
people desperately trying to find their way in life and how Moehringer
himself - definitely not born with a silver spoon in his mouth - had to
work and work hard for career respectability as a bona fide writer.
Clooney does a
resoundingly good job of quickly immersing us in Long Island of the early
70s (1973 to be precise) as the film opens, during which time we're
introduced the poverty stricken Dorothy (Lily Rabe) and her wide eyed and
optimistic minded 9-year-old son in J.R. (newcomer Daniel Ranieri, a
wonderful new find). They're
forced to move back home to Manhasset, Long Island after Dorothy has gone
several months without making rent payments.
Penniless and without much in the way of bountiful career
prospects, Dorothy moves herself and J.R. back into her family residence
with her crusty and cantankerous father (a mischievous Christopher Lloyd)
and brother in Charlie (Affleck). Good
ol' Uncle Charlie sure is a character.
He runs a local watering hole called The Dickens Bar that serves
the alcoholic needs of multiple generations of Islanders while dishing out
literary advice and books on loan that he has on shelves behind the beer
taps. As for J.R.'s dad? He's
a dead beat alcoholic radio host (Max Martini) that hasn't been a part of
his life for a majority of it, leaving Uncle Charlie pinch hitting as a
surrogate father figure. Charlie
relishes in teaching young J.R. everything about being a man to come while
instilling in him an appreciation for literature.
As J.R. grows up to young adulthood (Tye Sheridan) he has
aspirations to be a writer, with his mother making it her mission to -
somehow and someway - get her child into Yale. It's pretty clear
quite early on that Affleck isn't really obnoxiously scenery chewing his
way through THE TENDER BAR playing this Cadillac driving, f-bomb uttering,
and tavern owning uncle as much as he's just totally owning the role and
infusing it with a considerable amount of understated and infectious
charm. Charlie is an
intriguing creation here: He's a tough talking, take-no-shit-from-anyone
hooligan that's assuredly no saint, to be sure.
Having said that, he's not a punch drunk dummy either despite being
the type of poor sap that seems to have been beaten down by life in
general. He's not educated at
all, but is surprisingly book smart in terms of his appreciation for
literary classics, which he tries as he can to pass on to young J.R. to
nurture what will become his true calling and passion later in life.
That, and Charlie wants to gently pass on an informal education
about "the male sciences" on J.R. as he matures into a college
bound late teen, especially on matters of drinking and the opposite sex.
Affleck plays such a loveable lug here so well that it all but
erodes the formulaic nature of his character and J.R.'s whole coming of
age arc. And to watch Affleck
here right after his other Oscar nomination worthy turn in THE LAST DUEL
is to be reminded of what a superbly versatile actor he is when given just
the right role and material. Affleck is
flanked by many solid actors as well, in particular Tye Sheridan, who also
gives one of his more natural performances of recent memory of the older
J.R. (his chemistry with Affleck is palpable throughout and you really
gain a sense of the history that these characters share).
And it's certainly enjoyable to witness J.R. climbing the ranks of
Yale and eventually getting hired at the New York Times, which paved the
way for his later career accolades (the film is a moving testament to the
power of perseverance when it comes to one man's passionate drive to
achieve his occupational dream). But
J.R.'s personal journey here is nevertheless painted with achingly
familiar brush strokes. Tales
of young and impressionable kids/teens being given unlikely mentor figures
in their unconventional family members is as old as the movies themselves.
There are no genre stones left unturned by Monahan's script and
Clooney's fairly journeymen-like direction.
We get standard order voiceover narration tracks of the older and
wiser J.R. reflecting on his times with his kooky uncle.
We get a soundtrack littered with iconic hits of yesteryear.
We get a colorful menagerie of working class eccentrics that make
up this kid's larger family unit. We
get setback and success stories that permeate the young man's slow and
challenging rise to occupational glory and escape from his humble hometown
roots. Like, yeah, if it weren't for Clooney's steady hand behind
the camera and the work of seasoned actors in front of it then THE TENDER
BAR might have fallen into the category of a watchable, but cheaply
disposable period drama. There is one
other distracting issue that taints this film.
Affleck is - in real life - a man that has been afflicted with
alcoholism and now ironically plays a character here that runs a bar and
serves drinks to the town's alcoholics (and later his legal drinking aged
nephew). Charlie himself is
someone that has also had his brushes with addiction as well, but gives
out literary advice to J.R. while serving hard liquor to his clients.
If you exclude J.R.'s terribly underwritten absentee father figure,
THE TENDER BAR has so very little to say about drinking and addiction to
drinking. And when one thinks
about Affleck's own well publicized battles with sobriety, I think the
casualness of Charlie's alcoholism - and how it's treated so nonchalantly
here overall - is a real botched opportunity by Clooney and company.
Beyond that, Monahan's script also doesn't do his female characters
much justice either, most noticeably when it comes to J.R.'s mother and a
really undercooked subplot with J.R. and his on-again, off-again fling
with a fellow Yale student (Brianna Middleton); she's more of a plot
device propelling J.R.'s story forward than a fully realized character. Still, I'm recommending THE TENDER BAR on the strengths of Affleck's presence here and for how much warmth that Clooney imbues in this otherwise trite material. I think that both Clooney as a director and Affleck as an actor are well above the genre trappings presented here, but they both work in tandem to take the tired formulas contained within THE TENDER BAR and cultivate them into an easygoing and entertaining drama that will appease most viewers. This film doesn't reinvent the coming of age period film wheel at all, and even though it lacks sizeable dramatic punch throughout the individual moments sprinkled throughout the narrative feel lived-in and real. And seeing a career rejuvenated Affleck take on a rather stock character type and thanklessly make it uniquely and refreshingly his own is reason enough to visit THE TENDER BAR. |
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