Tenderness (2008/I)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

John Polson

Writers (WGA):

Emil Stern (screenplay)
Robert Cormier (novel)

Release Date:

15 January 2009 (Israel)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A policeman (Crowe) works to figure out whether a violent teen (Foster) murdered his family. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Russell Crowe	...	Detective Cristofuoro
Jon Foster	...	Eric Poole
Sophie Traub	...	Lori
Arija Bareikis	...	Marsha
Alexis Dziena	...	Maria
Michael Kelly	...	Gary
Vivienne Benesch	...	Lisa Komenko
Tanya Clarke	...	Jackie Cristofuoro
Tim Hopper	...	Dan Komenko
Brian Patrick Russell	...	Facility Director
Lee R. Sellars	...	Sam (as Lee Sellars)
Lou Sumrall	...	Cafeteria Guard
Laura Dern	...	Aunt Teresa
Matt Pepper	...	Ben
Saul Stein	...	Another Guard

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing violent and sexual content, and language.

Runtime:

Australia:101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Company:

GreeneStreet Films

Trivia:

Russell Crowe filmed all of his scenes in 9 days.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: (#11.6)" (2006)

typical polsen. nothing to say.

i went into this film with pretty low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.... to learn that my intuition is not faltering. This film was abhorrent.

Russel Crowe is simply too good for a John Polsen film. From the man who brought us the dastardly simplistic and stupefying swimfan, and similarly unthrilling and dumbly plotted hide and seek, comes a film that is desperately crying for attention as a 'serious film'. it is as a result unfortunate that i laughed harder through this film that 'the brothers bloom'...

The conceit is a retardation of most bonnie a Clyde rip offs, with a serial killer, and an obsessed feline catering to the every whim of said murderer.

Russel Crowe plays the semi retired cop (how many obsessed semi retired cops are there in films!!!) following a man who is sure to re-commit.

While the narrative has some really thought provoking themes; a man who can only feel tenderness by releasing life from victims, a girl vacant as the apathetic family she fled who craves tenderness, and a road trip of discovery it is only in the hands of a hack such as john polsen that such a film could simultaneously feel both so derivative and boring.

The cinematography is appalling, underlit and unmoving; but not in terms of changeling where this stalling aesthetic added to the emotional weight of the proceedings... no rather to infuriate and illustrate a director who thinks 'stillness' equates to drama.! The poster, and stills i saw showed russel crowe in all his glory, but this is in no way a film about him... in actuality he shares barely twenty minutes of wasted screen time where he appears to coast through the proceedings... Gone are the days of Romper Stomper, The Insider, Gladiator and Master and Commander.. This film felt like a favour to the director from 'sum of us' days, and as a result lacks direction, presence, logic and cohesion.

The moment of a laugh out loud comes when said femme fatale, who can't swim, stands up on a boat with the murderer, and starts rocking the boat (yes literally and metaphorically... who writes this crap) and starts exotically dancing while doing it... i won't tell you what comes of this but trust me... it ain't rocket science. This moment nailed it for me. This is just a stupid horrible film and a waste of time.

The film is a roadtrip where nothing happens except stupidly plotted, badly acted, terribly directed narrative exposition.

The film eventually has the nerve to bookend itself with a quote that was both at the beginning and the end of the film... but again like most of the film it is contrived and comes from a completely abstract and unnecessary direction..

Dull. TV Movie at best. Somebody stop this hack John Polsen from ruining any more scripts.

If there's one thing that could sum up the career of john polsen its 'hack'. he is non auteur and he has no idea how to tell a story.

However it must be said that at the premier despite all my friends spitting similar vitriol, there was a semi applause at the end... now whether this was because John Polsen was in the audience i do not know... but hey... what do i know... maybe some people enjoyed it? Just not me.