TENDER MERCIES (Bruce Beresford, USA, 1983, 9)
Robert Duvall was in person to introduce the film (and his THE APOSTLE, which I didn’t see) at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival. After entering the theater and walking down the aisle, he took the seat *right in front of yours truly.* While he was being introduced, I pulled out my program and a pen, and got Duvall to sign it on the page for TENDER MERCIES.
The film itself is one of the most subtly moving films I’ve ever seen, and I was choked up helplessly when we get to a conversation, speaking vaguely, near the end in a garden where Duvall’s faded country singer and his wife (Tess Harper) make clear what distinguishes the two of them, without having an argument per se.
MERCIES (which takes its title from the Psalmist) is almost entirely...