I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An endearing portrait of a weather-beaten American country musician Mac Sledge (Duvall), who takes the pledge and plumps for an ordinary life with his new wife Rose Lee (Harper) in the sticks. Australian director Bruce Beresford's first Hollywood outing emphatically breaks his duck by inducing an Oscar-crowning tour-de-force from a wonderfully amiable Robert Duvall, and what is more at a premium is the film's unpretentious tonality and lyrical felicity which stirs up an aptly authentic reverberations among its viewers, out of the story's sensible universality and abstention from small-town provincialism. Fetching up in a motel in a middle-of-nowhere Texas, the lush Mac is broke and has to pay off his staying by working for the motel owner, that happens to be Rose Lee, a young widow who has lost her husband in the Vietnam war and now runs the motel with her school-age son Sonny (Hubbard, this is his sole screen credit but he is down right sympathetic). A down-to-earth union takes its shape in due course and that is the blissful family life a man and a woman (and a fatherless child) could ever dream of. Meantime, Mac's backstory trickles alongside his new-found happiness, his ex-wife Dixie Scott (Buckley, shrilly shines in her Dolly Parton-inflected singing bent and edgy streak) is still a highly demanded touring singer feeding off on songs Mac wrote for her, and Mac has been proscribed from seeing their daughter Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin's second film credit), now in a troubled age of 18, ever since the inimical divorce (whose raison d'être entails alcoholism and domestic violence). So naturally, there are some fences needed mending, and through tacit love, old/new friendship and religion (not pedagogic but with a waft of sincere communion), Mac will eventually get hold of the most precious values about love, loss, family and life itself (past and present), they are mundanely traditional, but gleaming with a patina of poetic finesse under Beresford's sober and unobtrusive execution (you might anticipate an old soak's inevitable interlude of backsliding, which would serve as a jolting plot swerve, but nonetheless, that doesn't need to happen every time in a movie's plot!), which elevates this gem from other blasé offerings replete with lachrymosity and/or melancholia.The film is based on American playwright Horton Foote's tender-hearted and unaffected script (also reaped an Oscar), his very first original screenplay if truth be told, and there is no dispute on Mr. Duvall's quietly touching impersonation of a country singer in his own raw voice, like Mac's persona, his musical rendition is also mostly touching when he is simply strumming and humming inside his homestead, music should always have its self-pleasing precept before becoming a crowd-pleasing commodity. However, it is utterly remiss that Tess Harper is hardly hailed for her equally brilliant turn (a Golden Globe nomination is the solitary consolation, but she is leading in my book), an immaculate screen debut, her Rose Lee exemplifies a woman who truly understands how to tame a jaded soul and wills herself to stand behind her imperfect husband and support him through the vagaries, it is such a rare performance completely devoid of pretension and self- awarenss, her tranquil gaze magnificently rounds off this essential small-tale-with-a-big-heart boon, a slam-dunk melodrama.

Reduced to a life of drunkenness, a former famous country singer finds the inspiration to turn his life around after befriending a lonely widow who works an outskirts gas station in this Horton Foote scripted drama that won Robert Duvall his only ever Oscar. Always reliable when given the right character to play, Duvall is excellent throughout and the film benefits from a memorable, emotionally charged theme song that was also nominated for an Oscar. The overall film though is never quite as compelling as Duvall's performance. While the script offers memorable dialogue ("I don't trust happiness"), it provides little in the way of plot complications for Duvall's character to overcome. Initially, a nosey reporter and a bunch of country music fans who track Duvall down seem like they might tear at old wounds, but on the contrary, they only help him to further improve. Admittedly a surprise off-screen death offers a little jolt, but in general, 'Tender Mercies' offers such an upbeat tale, done in such high spirits that it is hard to take it as anything down-to-earth or realistic. Quitting alcohol proves no challenge to Duvall; same goes for rejoining the music scene - and thus his character never really feels like he has that much to go through. As mentioned though, Duvall is superb, and in fact the entire supporting cast - especially Allan Hubbard as a surrogate son - deliver well. The film also makes country living under wide open skies look very attractive. Its positive reputation is certainly understandable, but one's mileage with 'Tender Mercies' may vary.

Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is an alcoholic washed up country singer. He can't pay his motel bill and starts working for the widowed owner Rosa Lee (Tess Harper) who is raising her son Sonny. He turns his life around and they get marry. His new life is interrupted when a reporter drops by. His ex-wife Dixie Scott is a country music star and she's performing nearby. His story is printed in the newspaper. He goes to her concert and sees her manager Harry (Wilford Brimley). She angrily warns him not to see their daughter Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin).It's a powerful performance from Robert Duvall. That's the heart of the movie. He puts all of his skills to work. He's great when he's quiet. He's explosive when he needs to be. The camera work and the style could do more to add more substance to the material. It's a great showcase for Duvall and Tess Harper also gives a good performance.

This is the kind of film you leave with a new appreciation for life. The story focuses on Mac Sledge, a retired Country singer who had lost faith in everything- life, love, success, and hope. He moves to a motel in plans of drinking himself to death. Just then, perhaps of unbearable loneliness and his destructive state, he befriends with the motel's manager, and she agrees to let him stay and help her run her gas station.Slowly but gradually, Sledge begins to fall in love with her, and his appreciation of the tender mercies in life is sparked. The quite lifestyle he now conducts makes him give up his major bad habit- the drinking.Horton Foote, the screenwriter, does brilliant work in weaving Sledges experiences and inner thoughts into an inspiring story. Using no cheap Hollywood manipulations, he subtly constructs a sincere and deeply moving portrayal of a man who wouldn't easily give up on his past demons- only to find out life had different plans for him. We slowly get to know Sledge, one piece at a time, and by the end of the film we identify with the character to such a level, that we wish we could feel the empowering impact of life, just as he did.Robert Duvall is fantastic in his honest portrayal, mastering the smallest of nuances and brilliantly conveying Sledge's inner feelings and dilemmas.This is a movie for the patient watcher. Especially in this modern era where the watcher's eye can't focus on an image if it's still for more than five seconds. I assure you, however, that as this film unfolds, you will find yourself having a similar fulfilling journey just like the one the main character goes through. And how many modern films are able to grant you the same experience?