The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

TENDERNESS is a brilliantly done movie, and I would certainly watch it again.But be warned, it is not the kind of film for which you would pop a bowl of popcorn and sit down to enjoy with the family, expecting to laugh, smile, and be entertained.Rather it is a film that chooses to march very seriously and solemnly down a twisted dark path while holding a candle of insight, allowing the viewer to experience a very real and empathetic tour of the tragedies unrelenting abuse, ignored cries for help, and the severely poor state of mental health that can grow, slowly and steadily, over time.You must pay attention to what you are watching in this film. The script will not come right out and tell you everything, but if you pay attention, it will reveal everything you need to know. Watching TENDERNESS is like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without seeing beforehand what the actual finished picture should look like. But by the time you are done, you can sit back and look at the picture, and realize what is actually is.One point of brilliance is that the plot is so perfectly paced and developed, that you cannot possible fully understand the full impact of the story until final scene of the movie. It is only the twist of this final scene that will bring every preceding detail of the entire film into crystal clear focus, and fully reveal the meanings and purposes behind everything you have watched and heard up to that point. After the final credits have rolled, you will still be sitting there, stunned by the reality of what you just witnessed. It will leave you feeling helpless, wishing you had known in the beginning what you now know at the end, and that somehow you could have done something about it. I recommend you watch this movie. Not with popcorn, candy, and soda. Not with the hopes of laughter or silliness to enjoy. Not with the intent of using it to decompress of escape from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. It is not that kind of movie.It is a very serious film, that makes you a fly on the wall, witnessing a very serious tragedy unfolding right before your very eyes, and it leaves you feeling empathetic and helpless because in retrospect you could probably think of 100 ways to intervene, but by the time to fully understood what was happening, it was too late, and you were powerless to change anything you just witnessed.

"Tenderness" may not be the most apt title for this film with an undercurrent of deceit, psychopathology, and death wishes. But the film is worth viewing for its compelling script and the three excellent performances by Russell Crowe, Jon Foster, and Sophie Traub.Crowe plays a police detective engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with a young man who is being released from prison for the brutal slaying of his parents. The cop believes that Eric may be a serial killer, and he ineptly follows Eric from Buffalo to Albany.But the most interesting character may be Lori, a deeply troubled teenager with a crush on the killer. Is Lori attracted to Eric due to the sensational press coverage he has received? Or does she have a personal connection to him due to a chance encounter when she was younger? Those questions lie at the heart of the drama.It may be a matter of debate whether the filmmakers intentionally or inadvertently created some pseudo comical moments in this film. Some of the quirky moments include a pit stop where Eric is waiting for Lori to emerge from one of the stalls and instead nearly meets up with a female police officer. Or what about Lori's order of "curry" at the diner? Or the bizarre sequence in a trailer where a camera is discovered and Lori takes photos of Eric? The multi-textured characters and dialogue make "Tenderness" a film with imagination and complexity.

Another serial killer movie but this one is different. A teen-aged boy, Jon Foster, murders his mother and father and perhaps others whose bodies aren't found. When he's released from a juvenile facility, the detective Russel Crowe is waiting outside for him with a kindly smile and a gift -- a crucifix. During an amiable chat, Crowe tells Foster that he's a psychopath and will kill again unless he's stopped. Crowe takes on the job, following him from Buffalo almost to Albany.Along the way, Foster has picked up a sixteen-year-old girl who has run away from a home she dislikes, although it seems normal enough to a viewer. The girl is Sophie Traub. She's plain of feature, not unattractive, and has a dumpy figure like so many teens, and she knows all about Foster's criminal past. Foster attempts to get rid of her but she's tenacious. He plans to kill her twice -- once with a towel, once with a hammer -- but each time is interrupted by the police. It doesn't take the skills of a mind reader to know that Traub has a death with. She lies on a motel bed, exposes her throat, and begs him to "Do it; DO it!" He doesn't do it.It has its moments, but frankly I don't get it. It's a turgid and sometimes confusing story. Laura Dern, my co-star, shows up in a small part. Crowe's wife has been in an auto accident and evidently is now a vegetable, although this has nothing to do with the story itself. I'd have to guess that the bedridden wife is there in order for us to see how tenderly Crowe washes her insensate body, then make an interpretive leap from that fact to Crowe's wanting to keep the boy in the slams to prevent him from damaging anyone else's family the way his wife has been damaged. I'm not the athlete I used to be and had trouble making that leap, succeeding only after three or four tries.If the young girl wants to be killed -- okay. We can all understand that. But Jon Foster's character is impenetrable. He rarely speaks and when he does it's some bourgeois bromide. I have no idea what's going on inside his head, except that he's ridden with guilt, which any certified psychopath wouldn't be. He has multiple opportunities to murder the blond girl but the only times he tries is when he's thwarted.The melancholic music -- including one of those sad, folksy ballads accompanied by a solo guitar, now arriving on the Leonard Cohen express -- tells us that everything is pretty bleak. And the score is right. It's depressing. Some things in its favor: it's far from being just another slasher movie. There's no blood at all. The characters are complex. And an ominous quality hangs over the entire picture. Some will find it artful.

The faceplate review of this film is excellent. It's an indie, slow moving, full of tristesse and dysfunctional people. The underlying theme song might have been the Beatle's classic, "Strawberry Fields," with its haunting theme, "Nothing is real..." Russell Crowe, a much better actor than most people are willing to give him credit for gives a superb but fleeting performance, coming in and out of the action created by the two focal characters, the pathological Eric, played by handsome, boy-next-door type Jon Foster and the suicidal nymphet Lori, played the young Canadian Sophie, whose ambiguous nubile sexuality adds an amazing texture to the story. The story itself is a trip through purgatory with injured, wounded souls seemingly coming out of the woodwork. A brief encounter with the wonderful Laura Dern as the cautious and aware Aunt Sophie adds to the movement of the story. This is excellent film-making and it will stay with me for a long time, albeit I can't say for a moment that I enjoyed watching it. However, it is a reminder that some things are worth more being experienced rather than merely enjoyed. We're left with the question, "are there really people out there like these wounded, dysfunctional souls?" And, the only answer we can come up with is "Perhaps." But, the greater lesson is that not all of us fit nicely into the social order. And, isn't that what purgatory's all about?