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Robert Duvall earned the Best Actor Oscar for his subtle but moving performance in Tender Mercies, the story of a divorced, alcoholic country singer who hits rock bottom before slowly rebuilding his life. A single mother (Tess Harper) hires him to help her maintain a roadside gas station and motel. The two get married and Duvall becomes step-father to her young son (Allan Hubbard). While he politely evades fans encouraging him to pick up singing and songwriting again, he attempts to connect with his estranged daughter (Ellen Barkin). But this leads to confrontations with his celebrity singer ex-wife (Betty Buckley) and her manager (Wilford Brimley), who are reluctant to overlook his violent, alcoholic past to give him any benefits of doubt.
Duvall is uncommonly believable as an everyman experiencing midlife crisis. He doesn’t indulge in any common, flashy tactics used by actors to embellish a role like this. He doesn’t scream when he gets mad, he doesn’t sob when tragedy strikes. Yet he conveys the inner, emotional complexity of his character with a series of more elegant choices — sometimes accomplishing multitudes with just the thoughts behind his eyes. It’s a masterclass in the power of subtle performance.
Tender Mercies is directed by Australian-born Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant), who adopts a minimalist approach to Horton Foote’s quiet, contemplative screenplay. Apart from several country songs performed (including a few sung by Duvall), there’s no traditional score, a move that underlines Beresford’s desire to present a complicated character without judgment. Tender Mercies never spoon-feeds its audience in the slightest. Impatient viewers might argue it’s a movie in which nothing really happens. It doesn’t forecast where it’s headed, and it doesn’t wrap up with a bow. It’s a deliberately-paced ‘slice of life’ story that will, if you let it, slowly pull you into its characters’ lives and the moody, austere, Texas flatlands they inhabit. It’s a meditation on life, exploring how our drive and ambition can conflict with our appreciation of the simpler, finer, and much more important things — the things often right under our noses.
With Paul Gleason and Lenny von Dohlen.
Academy Awards: Best Actor (Robert Duvall), Original Screenplay (Horton Foote)
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Director, Song (“Over You”)