Tenderness (2009/Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

One of the few Russell Crowe films you may not have seen lately, he plays a police officer trying to find out if a young psychotic killer (the underrated Jon Foster from Pandorum, reviewed elsewhere on this site) also murdered his family in Tenderness, a 2009 thriller of sorts from teen-movie-turned-TV-director John Polson.  Based on a novel by Robert Cormier (The Chocolate War, which made for a very underrated film), this never adds up as it does not know if it wants to be a thriller or character study.

 

As the former, it does not have much suspense and as the latter, does not delve deeply enough into any of the characters despite some very good performances by a cast that also includes Laura Dern.  At least they tried something ambitious, but Emil Stern’s screenplay and Polson’s directing fall short, making me want to read the book to see where they have gone wrong.  Still, it is better than much of what you could land up seeing and is worth your time if you are really curious.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in real anamorphic 35mm Panavision by Tom Stern, who is Clint Eastwood’s stand-by Director of Photography, but this does not look as good as it ought to considering a format superior to Super 35 is being used, so Video Black and detail are weak color mixed.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the default highlight of the whole release with a decent soundfield, while the Dolby 2.0 Stereo is not bad, but has limited Pro Logic surrounds.  The only extra is a making-of featurette that is not very long.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo