The Tender Bar
At the Myrna Loy
R
Grade: B-
Many parts are lovely.
The whole? Not so much.
I could splice together a dozen scenes from “The Tender Bar” that would warm your heart, and perhaps entice you to spend two hours with its quirky, likable characters.
But, chances are you’ll come away from the film a touch disappointed.
To borrow a pet phrase from my daughter to describe pleasant forgettable fare: “It’s not awful.”
The script, based on a memoir, has breadth without depth – an array of undercooked entrées.
The opening chapter focuses on a cute grade school boy named JR whose loser of a dad abandoned the family. His sweet mom does her best, but he longs for a male mentor.
People are also reading…
Enter Uncle Charlie, a bartender with blue-collar wisdom on tap.
JR does his math homework at the bar, while the regulars drink their assignments. Uncle Charlie takes him for a spin in his convertible, a 1968 Cadillac DeVille. Once, Charlie lets the boy drive, even though the kid can barely see over the wheel.
Just as we’re growing fond the uncle outings, the script lurches forward: JR is applying to college.
JR (Tye Sheridan) matriculates to Yale and we jump in his suitcase. He finds close friends and falls in love with a snooty Yale girl who will give him her body but not her heart.
“I’m dating someone,” she says, climbing out of bed. JR keeps chasing her. She keeps brushing him off.
The most compelling relationship is JR’s tender bond with his mom. Lily Rabe channels her inner Sally Field to share the heart of a lonely lady trying to give her kid a good life.
After a few Yale adventures, our hero applies for a job at The New York Times.
We watch JR submit his first story. We follow him into the editor’s office to hear the sad words: “You’re not quite good enough.”
JR talks of moving from newspaper writing to fiction. He will eventually win a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing with the LA Times.
So what do we have here? A kid movie? A college movie? A romcom? Dad-son trauma drama?
All of the above, really, but each one only skimming the surface. No deep dives.
“The Tender Bar” boasts lots of star power headed by George Clooney, who directs, and Ben Affleck who plays Uncle Charlie. The supporting cast includes Christopher Lloyd, who most of us remember as Doc Brown in “Back to the Future.”
The script was penned by William Monahan, who won the Oscar for adapted screenplay on Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.”
We expect more than we get.
Which is not to say that we won’t enjoy parts of the journey. Like long road trips, there’s almost always a stretch that’s memorable.
Glass-half-full travelers can remember the best and forget the rest.
That’s not a bad mindset to take to the movies, either.