The Tender Bar (Amazon Prime)
The Tender Bar is a tender story. It is a coming of age
story based on the memoir of J.R. Moehringer and directed by George Clooney.
JR, the lead character, portrayed by Daniel Ranieri, as the young JR and Tye Sheridan
as his older self. JR receives several life lessons from the local bar “The
Dickens” which is owned by his Uncle Charlie played by Ben Affleck. Uncle
Charlie bestows worldly advice to JR such as never hit a woman even if she stabs
you with a pair of scissors.
Ben Affleck is laid back as Uncle Charlie who assumes the
role as the father figure. This is not a stretch for Affleck but he is endearing
with JR. Daniel Ranieri is another great child actor. He displays maturity and
confidence in his acting and is adorable. Christopher Lloyd plays the grandfather
as a curmudgeon with a deeply buried good heart. I just wish there were more scenes
with Lloyd. Tye Sheridan carries most of the film. He journeys from a working
class neighborhood in Manhasset to Yale and a as a copy boy at the New York
Times. His father, The Voice (a radio disk jockey), comes in and out of his
life but never stays. He is a nasty alcoholic and he does hit women. Briana Middleton
is the beautiful Sydney his erstwhile girlfriend who entices him and then drops
him several times. Another life lesson.
The Tender Bar is easy to digest and very satisfying.
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