Try a little 'Tenderness'
29/06/2009
Tenderness is an engrossing American road movie that almost succeeds in its quest to combine a love story with a psychological thriller. In up-and-coming script writer Emil Stern’s unusual story, a handsome twenty-something psychopath (Jon Foster) is beaten at his own game by Lori (Sophie Taub), a fifteen-year-old girl on a suicide mission. Both characters are searching for a bit of tenderness in all the wrong places.
Eric Poole (Foster) has been in juvenile prison for murdering his devout Christian parents who kept him sedated to repress what they suspected to be a violent sexual urge. Presumably because of these extenuating circumstances, Eric is released a lot sooner than semi-retired police detective Lt Christofuoro (Russell Crowe) would have liked. When Eric drives to Syracuse, New York to visit – and perhaps murder – a young woman he met in prison, Christofuoro interrupts his tender vigil over his wife in a coma to follow him. Eric hasn’t counted on Lori hiding in the back seat of his car or on the fact that she may have witnessed him murdering the victim in one of Christofuoro’s unsolved cases. What Lori remembers isn’t the murder, but the tender way he kissed the girl first. Having been abused for years by her unsuspecting mother’s boyfriends, Lori is not only unafraid of Eric but fascinated by him. Lt. Christofuoro, however, is determined to prevent Eric from killing again.
Sophie Taub and Jon Foster are excellent as the two troubled lovers and Taub, in particular, is a revelation. The casting of Russell Crowe is not as successful. Polson and Stern also seem to have had ‘No Country for Old Men’ in mind, particularly with the idea of framing the story with the law man’s indulgent narration. But Crowe doesn’t have that wrinkled skin, or the old-country, world-weariness of Tommy Lee Jones and he goes through the motions, probably aware he’s miscast. Moreover, since Christofuoro’s wife’s condition doesn’t appear to be vocationally related, can he afford to retire in his mid- forties?
While the film is taut and suspenseful, the script isn’t without problems. You can’t help asking yourself, extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, how a guy who butchered his parents would have been released after only a few years in jail and without a tag or parole officer. The credibility gap is widened when we learn Eric’s gone to live alone with his aunt (Laura Dern) – the sister of the woman he murdered! Polson directs with considerable skill but at times he goes overboard on the gothic horror element that feels like it’s from another movie. When Eric chooses a motel that resembles Bate’s Motel in Psycho, it’s just silly.