Tenderness, 2009

Tenderness, 2009
Director: John Polson
Cast: Russel Crowe, Jon Foster, Sophie Traub

Stage: Home theatre


Tenderness in short:Three lives. Buffalo detective Lt. Cristofuoro, whose catatonic wife is in hospital, takes a special interest in Eric Komenko, a juvenile who killed his parents and will be freed on his 18th birthday. So has Lori Cranston, 15 or 16, her body fully developed and the object of lust by her boss and her mother's new boyfriend. She keeps a scrapbook about Eric, and when he's released from custody, she hides in the backseat of his car, insisting he take her with him on a trip toward Albany where he's planning to meet a girl. Cristofuoro is certain Eric will kill again, so he follows. It's clear early on that Cristofuoro's probably right, but what's Lori's motivation?

Preps: Again, one of the leftovers on my disk. The fact that Crowe is in it, diggs my mind. I just adore the man and want to see everything he has to give. Although I don't suppose it will ever stand up to be Gladiator again.


Reality: Wow, a huge dissappointment. The story is not as bad as it is represented. I mean, it could be driven much better, as a half criminal thriller. Instead of that, the movie has too long and static scenes, no real action and lots of questions unanswered. Why the detective pursues the young rebel, is quite clear, yet it could be more of a mystery, if the director walked an extra mile. It doesn't happen, unfortunately. The young lady just dissappears without anyone looking at her. At least when she drives everyone around her crazy, you have a gut feeling why. And all in all, you want to shut down the movie.
The dialogue sucks, the scenes are terribly put together. Crowe might be the only shining point in this piece, but even he doesn't convince me to watch it until the end. All the time I am waiting for the movie to develop into something interesting. Doesn't happen, unfortunately. Did the young man actually rape his dead mother? Now there's a story to follow. Well, I wait without any luck.

Even Crowe has his bad moments. This was one of them.



My personal rating: 2,0 (and this for the sake of Crow. Apart from that, crappy movie and I definitely don't recommend it.


Tenderness on IMDB