TENDER MERCIES W/ CALVIN LEE REEDER

The often overlooked TENDER MERCIES is a beautifully low-key film about a broken musician trying to put his life back together. Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is a washed-up, alcoholic country and western singer who finds solace and affection with a widow and her 10-year-old son on a Texan prairie. It features a real tour-de-force performance by Duvall, but the film's true strength comes from Horton Foote's sensitively written screenplay. Foote refuses to approach the material as soap opera or drama: the movie unfolds quietly and simply, and the big emotional moments subtly sneak up on the audience leaving a deep impact.

“TENDER MERCIES is so good that it has the effect of rediscovering a kind of film fiction that has been debased over the decades by hack moviemakers.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times

“TENDER MERCIES' ultimate miracle is its faith in the audience. It assumes, perhaps unreasonably, that we are not so canned overblown effects that we cannot pick up on its quiet rhythms.” - Molly Haskell, Vogue