Too many fans seem to be blown away

Purely Joyful Movie!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

"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.

Dreary and slow. What passes for thoughtful in indie land,its lesson seems to be this: some people are literally dying to get killed by really boring and charmless sociopaths.Everything fails, from the embarrassingly quanky music (two artsy-folksy songs under action made me blush and cringe) to the pedestrian camera work and editing to the WTF year-is-this?-costumes-and-hair to the casting of good actors in tiny parts,(better no Laura Dern than shooting with her for one day), to poor Crowe, looking puffy and depressed in sweater vest, 70s polyester, given absolutely nothing to do. Aside from moping and delivering a teen diaryish VO, this physical and vibrant actor is given nothing for his character. Sophie Traub is valiant in her efforts to give this heartless rust belt film some spark--but Jon Foster is a dead space on the screen and drowns everything around him in a kind of insidious averageness.

Eric Poole is seen in a reformatory facility. He has been in the place for three years for the murder of his parents, something that was blamed on the medication he was taken at the time. Unknown to Eric, he has a secret admirer, a young woman that once saw him near the water of the lake with a girl as he caressed her with some kind of ribbon, akin to a bookmark. Eric had a brief encounter with a girl inmate, Maria, who stays vividly in his mind. He figures he will look for her when he is out. Eric's mild manners hide an ugly side of him no one suspects.Lori is a sixteen years old teenager that has experienced enough in her short life. We watch her showing an employee of the store she works after school some of her charms, while he masturbates. Lori's life at home with her mother and her new man, Gary, is not exactly perfect. Gary might have taken advantage of Lori. All she wants is to leave home for a chance meeting with Eric, whom she knows is staying at his aunt's.The third character in this tale is Lt. Christofuoro, a retired detective who was involved in Eric's parent's murder. He is going through a difficult time tending to his comatose wife in a hospital. Lt. Christofuoro knows Eric shows clear signs of a psychopath, so when he visits his aunt, he is surprised he had gone to Albany to check on colleges. He decides he must follow Eric.John Polson has been directing a lot of television lately. In fact, "Tenderness" was his last job with a full length movie. Working with the Emil Stern screenplay, Mr. Polson does not seem to have a clear idea what he wanted to achieve, or perhaps his best intentions about the adaptation of Robert Cormier novel got away from him. There are times the narrative does not quite make much sense, the way it is presented, while at times he gets amazing results from his talented cast.The only reason one can recommend the film is because of Sophie Traub who steals the film from her co-stars. This young actress is marvelous in her role of the mixed young woman obsessed with the man that could well be her killer. Jon Foster does a nice take on his Eric, but he is eclipsed by Ms. Traub. Russell Crowe's presence in the film is basically a supporting role, more than anything else. We do not see much of the excellent Laura Dern either.The film was shot in scenic New York state areas captured by Tom Stern's camera. The musical score is by Jonathan Goldsmith.

This movie was a great disappointment to watch due to a number of factors, all of which combine to make for a flat and unexciting viewing experience.First off, it is clear from the outset that Jon Foster killed his parents but had that crime expunged from his record, so Detective Cristofuoro's relentless pursuit of him is altogether pointless. Cops don't just chase people around like that because they THINK they MAY do something, they go after people who have already done bad things, and in this case Foster hadn't done anything to merit this pursuit. The "dramatic" scene towards the end of the movie when Det. Cristofuoro and his cadre of New York state troopers try to arrest Foster was the breaking point for me, as they treated him as though he had actually committed a crime when all he had done was drive to see the girl Maria who had written him a note right before his release from jail (apparently in an inadequately-explained attempt to entrap him trying to kill another young woman).Then there's Lori. It becomes clear at some point that her mom's boyfriend Gary has molested her at least once in the past, but I felt no sympathy for her whatsoever in her neurotic and obsessive pursuit of Foster. By halfway through the movie I almost WANTED her to die and get the plot going! Her eventual suicide by drowning was entirely anti-climactic and really did nothing for the plot or to develop any feelings of empathy on the part of the viewer with her character.Going back to Foster, he acts creepy, and it is made clear that he killed his parents because they found evidence of his killing and posthumous defilement of an unnamed girl who is flashed to at various time throughout the movie. His alleged religiousness simply serves to make him a little creepier without serving any deeper purpose (except perhaps to point out that the director has a dismal opinion of Christianity).His ending up in jail at the end of the movie was enough for me to exclaim that this crapper of a film wasted 101 minutes of my life I will never get back.In short: too many glaring plot holes, and insufficient character development. I just didn't care about any of the characters even by the end of the movie, and certainly got no plot closure.