The Tender Bar

 

    Ben Affleck and Tye Sheridan in “The Tender Bar.” Amazon image via IMDB

For all the high wattage in the credits – Ben Affleck toplining the cast, George Clooney in the director's chair – “The Tender Bar” still feels like a little movie. Unassuming, likable, heartfelt, but more like a labor of love from filmmakers early in their careers, running on high hopes and maxed-out credit cards than another tag team effort from Affleck and Clooney, already high on Hollywood's A-plus list with a handful of Oscars between them.

William Monahan wrote the screenplay, adapting J.R. Moehringer's memoir about a little boy named Jr (Daniel Ranieri), who wants to be a writer when he grows up. He and his single mom (Lily Rabe) have to move into grandpa (Christopher Lloyd)'s house in working-class Long Island after they are deserted by Jr's daddy (Max Martini). In the credits daddy is identified as “The Voice,” since he's a New York broadcaster. Although he's a perennial no-show in his son's life, he's there whenever they turn on the radio … at least until Mom can turn it off or, better yet, knock it off the shelf.

“The Voice” is kinder than other descriptions he warrants. Jr drops the period after his name, not wanting to be “junior” to the man in any way. 

Grandpa's house might as well have a revolving door, for all the members of the extended family moving in and out. But one constant is Uncle Charlie (Affleck). He's not going anywhere. His closet is stuffed floor to ceiling with books, and he runs a bar called The Dickens – yes, as in Charles – just for good measure.

Uncle Charlie is an athlete and philosopher; Affleck doesn't play the role so much as inhabit it. Although we're initially observing him through his nephew's adoring eyes, Uncle Charlie turns out to be the real deal, with blue collar intellectualism and charisma to spare as he regularly dispenses lessons in “male science” to the kid. 

Under Uncle Charlie's influence – including instructions to read all those books in his closet – the boy decides he wants to be a writer. From his mom he learns that, one way or another, he's going to Harvard or Yale. Intelligence is held in high esteem in their humble abode – Grandpa was an Ivy League grad, although you'd never know it from the way he sits around the living room in his bathrobe.

Jr also learns a lot from the colorful patrons in his uncle's bar. As he grows older Tye Sheridan takes over the role before heading off to college. What he learns there isn't much of an improvement over Uncle's Charlie's pearls of working class wisdom, other than discovering the dangers of falling in love with someone out of your league (Briana Middleton).

Affleck's made-to-order role is a reminder that actors – some of them anyway – are better at being other people than they are at being themselves. Lily Rab as Jr's mother also registers high on the lovable scale, and both actors who play the young protagonist shine. In the glut of boys-to-men coming-of-age stories filling this movie award season, “The Tender Bar” is the easiest and most accessible. That big hole in Jr's heart doesn't stay empty for long, and “Tender” is the key word for the film's effect.

Clooney has a steady hand and light touch behind the camera, making his cast of New Yawk characters very human beings as he fills the spaces between them with cars, clothes and other details true to the '70s and '80s time frame.

The story's status as a memoir is a running joke through the film, but also points up the reason it feels like a small slice of life rather than a larger helping. Memoirs written by young men, especially those aspiring to be writers, sometimes have to overlook the fact that they haven't lived enough life yet to have much to say. 

But in the meantime, we can savor the tenderness and rock out to the film's soundtrack, an added delight all by itself.