Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tenderness


This is another of those movies I’d never heard of, and as it turns out, maybe with good reason. It’s the story of a young man who murders his parents when he’s 15, is tried as a juvenile, and gets off with three years of detention in a juvenile facility because he was on heavy doses of antidepressants when he committed the crime. When he turns 18, he’s released, but the cop who investigated the case (Russell Crowe) thinks he’s actually a psychopath and will kill again.

The kid takes off on a road trip, accompanied by a 16-year-old girl who’s obsessed with him and may be crazier than he is. The cop follows them, hoping to catch the kid in the act of trying to kill somebody else so justice will finally be done.

That’s not a bad set-up, but unfortunately this is one of those movies where there’s thirty minutes worth of plot and an hour and a half of brooding. It’s well-acted and there’s the occasional nice line, but that doesn’t make up for the glacial pace. Grim, psychological “thrillers” like this may fascinate some viewers, but I’m not one of them. I didn’t like TENDERNESS at all.

1 comment:

Cullen Gallagher said...

This one also passed by my radar unnoticed. Now that you've pointed it out, I probably won't go seek it out anytime soon.