The Tender Bar: Film Review

The Tender Bar: Movie Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe

Director: George Clooney

Bathed in a sense of nostalgia and swathed in the palette of a picture postcard, George Clooney's The Tender Bar feels like little more than a group of ramshackle coming-of-age vignettes, shot with purpose, but ultimately lacking an engaging cohesion.

Based on J.R. Moehringer's memoir, it's the story of J.R. (Daniel Ranieri as the wide-eyed child, Tye Sheridan in the latter years) who's forced to live at his grandpa's place when his single mum (Rabe, powerful at the start, sidelined after a third of the way) has to head home.

With his mother's exhortations that he would go to Harvard, JR spends most of his time in the foster father relationship of his uncle Charlie (Affleck, rarely more likeable and affable in this casual role) who works at the local bar.

The Tender Bar may be aiming for a gentle mellow vibe, but its lacklustre plotting and sense of ambling does nothing to shake off any feeling that it's too relaxed.

Granted, Affleck is perhaps at his strongest yet as the supporting uncle, espousing advice and guiding J.R., but the script allows him to do little else than muse out loud and interact before moving on.

It may be the memoir is a book that works with a loosely-connected narrative, something that would fit with a coming-of-age tale that's more meandering on the page than in a cinema, but George Clooney's workmanlike take on the story rarely lifts itself out of the middle-of-the-lane that it finds itself in.

From trite voiceover bon mots to shifting timelines with characters disappearing for no real reason or effect, The Tender Bar feels like a discarded outtake from Richard Linklater's Boyhood, a film that you're constantly reminded of during. 

A one-note bad dad that appears on J.R.'s scene exists solely to inject some kind of conflict now and again and remind him that not all men are great, but feels like the nuance was lacking as the film needed some kind of villain - but even this isn't developed or used enough to warrant inclusion.

Ultimately, The Tender Bar has melancholy edges and is the kind of film that you'd associate the word "nice" with. That's not a fatal nail in its coffin, but with plenty of other streaming options around, even a strong performance from Ben Affleck isn't enough to warrant such an unsubtle film that never quite manages to find itself shifting a gear when it desperately needs to.

The Tender Bar is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on January 7.