The Tender Bar Review

PLOT: A young boy (Daniel Ranieri) whose mother (Lily Rabe) is forced to move back in with her parents (Christopher Lloyd & Sondra James) thanks to his deadbeat dad, finds an unlikely father figure in his uncle (Ben Affleck) who runs the beloved local bar.

REVIEW: I’ve always been a big fan of Ben Affleck’s. While people like to give him a lot of shit, as an actor, when he digs deep, very few are his equal and his talent is often neglected by critics. He gave the performance of his life in last year’s The Way Back, but no one bothered to actually watch it. Here’s hoping his follow-up, The Tender Bar, gets a warmer reception because it’s a warm, lovable yarn that features another impeccable Affleck performance.

Warmly directed by George Clooney, whose affection for the characters shines through for the entire running time, The Tender Bar is based on the memoir by J. R. Moehringer. The film is split in two, with half depicting young J.R.’s adventures with his uncle when he’s a child, while the second half deals with the now-adult J.R. (played by Tye Sheridan) as he enters college, falls in love, and tries to reconcile with the father (Max Martini) who never wanted him and doesn’t care about him.

Affleck’s rarely been permitted to play such an appealing guy. In the movie Cocktail, there’s a line where Bryan Brown tells Tom Cruise that bartenders are the aristocrats of the working class. I kept thinking about that as I watched The Tender Bar because that’s how Affleck’s Uncle Charlie comes off. A beloved figure at his bar, “The Dickens,” he holds court, dispensing advice and wisdom. Impeccably well-read (hence the bar’s name), he encourages J.R.’s ambitions to become a writer. He loves the kid, but he’s not a mushy guy and not one to overstep. For example, he despises J.R.’s absent dad but still allows the two of them to at least attempt to bond. He also takes a step back when there’s a father-son breakfast at school, with J.R. bringing his grumpy (but loving) grandpa instead (Christopher Lloyd in his second scene-stealing performance of the year following Nobody).

Uncle Charlie isn’t the lead, though, with this firmly J.R.’s story throughout out. Young Daniel Ranieri is tremendously appealing, but he’s equalled by Tye Sheridan, who makes the adult J.R. a tougher, more cynical character than you’d expect. He seems almost like a younger version of Ben Affleck here, which is fitting as Affleck’s Uncle Charlie has essentially been his beloved model of manhood. We watch him fall in love with an upper-class girl (Briana Middleton), only to have her use him as little more than a way to rebel against her parents. Sheridan’s best scenes are with Affleck, with their chemistry as strong as it was between Affleck and Ranieri, and his final confrontation with Max Martini’s “The Voice,” J.R.’s absentee radio D.J. dad.

Clooney has an eye for lower-key character-driven movies, and it’s nice to see him take a step back into stuff like this following his big-budget sci-fi epic, The Midnight Sky. Clooney has a lot of empathy as a director, and he seems to adore the characters here. Everyone is pretty lovable, including Lily Rabe, who holds her own as J.R.’s loving but overwhelmed mother. There’s a genuine kindness that shines through here, and, rarely, you can call a modern film “kind,” but that’s what this is.

The Tender Bar is open in limited release now but starts streaming on Amazon Prime on January 7th.

The Tender Bar

AMAZING

9

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