Best movie ever!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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

An endearing portrait of a weather-beaten American country musician Mac Sledge (Duvall), who takes the pledge and plumps for an ordinary life with his new wife Rose Lee (Harper) in the sticks. Australian director Bruce Beresford's first Hollywood outing emphatically breaks his duck by inducing an Oscar-crowning tour-de-force from a wonderfully amiable Robert Duvall, and what is more at a premium is the film's unpretentious tonality and lyrical felicity which stirs up an aptly authentic reverberations among its viewers, out of the story's sensible universality and abstention from small-town provincialism. Fetching up in a motel in a middle-of-nowhere Texas, the lush Mac is broke and has to pay off his staying by working for the motel owner, that happens to be Rose Lee, a young widow who has lost her husband in the Vietnam war and now runs the motel with her school-age son Sonny (Hubbard, this is his sole screen credit but he is down right sympathetic). A down-to-earth union takes its shape in due course and that is the blissful family life a man and a woman (and a fatherless child) could ever dream of. Meantime, Mac's backstory trickles alongside his new-found happiness, his ex-wife Dixie Scott (Buckley, shrilly shines in her Dolly Parton-inflected singing bent and edgy streak) is still a highly demanded touring singer feeding off on songs Mac wrote for her, and Mac has been proscribed from seeing their daughter Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin's second film credit), now in a troubled age of 18, ever since the inimical divorce (whose raison d'être entails alcoholism and domestic violence). So naturally, there are some fences needed mending, and through tacit love, old/new friendship and religion (not pedagogic but with a waft of sincere communion), Mac will eventually get hold of the most precious values about love, loss, family and life itself (past and present), they are mundanely traditional, but gleaming with a patina of poetic finesse under Beresford's sober and unobtrusive execution (you might anticipate an old soak's inevitable interlude of backsliding, which would serve as a jolting plot swerve, but nonetheless, that doesn't need to happen every time in a movie's plot!), which elevates this gem from other blasé offerings replete with lachrymosity and/or melancholia.The film is based on American playwright Horton Foote's tender-hearted and unaffected script (also reaped an Oscar), his very first original screenplay if truth be told, and there is no dispute on Mr. Duvall's quietly touching impersonation of a country singer in his own raw voice, like Mac's persona, his musical rendition is also mostly touching when he is simply strumming and humming inside his homestead, music should always have its self-pleasing precept before becoming a crowd-pleasing commodity. However, it is utterly remiss that Tess Harper is hardly hailed for her equally brilliant turn (a Golden Globe nomination is the solitary consolation, but she is leading in my book), an immaculate screen debut, her Rose Lee exemplifies a woman who truly understands how to tame a jaded soul and wills herself to stand behind her imperfect husband and support him through the vagaries, it is such a rare performance completely devoid of pretension and self- awarenss, her tranquil gaze magnificently rounds off this essential small-tale-with-a-big-heart boon, a slam-dunk melodrama.

Toward the end a character asks a number of why questions; why did this happen, why that? We don't always know why things work out the way they do; but that's life, for everyone. That's kind of the theme of this slow-developing character study of a damaged man named Mac (Robert Duvall), former country songwriter and singer.The script tells the story of Mac and his life in the slow lane, and his relationship to Rosa (Tess Harper) and others around him. It's a story of simple but genuine folks whose lives center on basic human values like dignity, honesty, and absence of pretense The lonely, barren spaces of West Texas provide the backdrop for the story. As such, the film reminds me of three other films about down home folks set in the rural South: "Gilbert Grape", "Silkwood" and "The Last Picture Show".There's not much in the way of high drama here; there's no suspense; nor is there any mystery. The entire plot plays out in a natural sort of way, as does life for most people. Things just happen; we ponder why; we move on.Visuals look realistic with natural lighting and lots of wide-angle camera shots. Also adding to the sense of realism is detailed production design appropriate to rural Texas. Film direction, casting, and acting are fairly competent.My only real complaints relate to the slow pace and the music. If the pace had been any slower, the story would have stopped; and with the absence of high drama or anything startling in the plot, some viewers will become bored, as I did during a few segments. Also, I was disappointed with the country songs that were sung. None were memorable. As such, the film's tone was less evocative than it could have been.Slow-moving and very low-key, "Tender Mercies" offers viewers a plausible and deeply thematic story of life in a rural setting with characters that are believable and fairly likable. Too bad they don't make many films like this anymore.

As the story opens, washed-up country singer Mac (Robert Duvall) is dead drunk in a shabby Texas motel room. With no money to pay the bill, he starts working for the widow (Tess Harper) who runs the place. Once he stops drinking, he starts liking life again and becomes close to the woman and her young son. Not one to talk about himself or the past, she doesn't know that he was once a big star.This is a wonderful, beautiful story. Duvall excels at playing honest, straightforward characters that are completely lacking in artifice and is convincing as the silent, pained has-been. His compelling performance won the Oscar in 1984. This was Tess Harper's first movie but she acts like a pro; she effortlessly portrays the simple, hardworking woman who is grateful for the tender mercies, or blessings, in her life. The two stars make you feel like you've really been to rural Texas and gotten to know and care about the folks there. The movie is quite similar in mood to "The Last Picture Show," with characters that say what they mean and know who they are.This is a quiet, touching, and utterly engaging movie about interesting people. Heartily recommended.

'Tender Mercies' is a Must See film for various reasons. The Screenplay by Horton Foote is beautiful, which won and had to win an Oscar. Bobby Duvall's Oscar-Winning performance as a washed-up singer, is flawless, and Bruce Beresford directs this story with great patience.'Tender Mercies' tells the story of Mac Sledge, played by Duvall, a recovering alcoholic country music singer, who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas.Horton Foote's Screenplay is beautiful, as said before. At times, he gives his characters so much. And, at times, takes everything away from them. This journey of Happiness, Redemption, Sadness & Responsibility, comes up wonderfully. Bruce Beresford understands this story, and handles it with patience. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is good.Acting-Wise: Duvall, won an Oscar for Best Actor, for his flawless performance in here. Duvall lives his part so well, that you become in awe of him. Tess Harper is very good. Betty Buckley is perfect. Others lend good support.On the whole, Don't miss this Human Story. Two Thumbs Up!