Tenderness (2007)
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 14
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 3
liked it
Average Rating: 2.5/5
User Ratings: 1,672
My Rating
Movie Info
Adapted from the novel by Robert Cormier, this psychological crime drama tells the tense story of an obsessed police lieutenant who's on the hunt for a dangerous young killer. The first thing most people notice about handsome high school student Eric Komenko (Jon Foster) is his easy charm. But that charm doesn't run deep, because a closer look reveals a cold-blooded killer. When Eric's devoutly religious mother discovers that her son has been sleeping around, the teen responds to her maternal
Nov 5, 2008 Wide
Apr 13, 2010
Lionsgate
Watch It Now
Cast
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Russell Crowe
Lt. Cristofuoro -
Laura Dern
Aunt Teresa -
Jon Foster
Eric Komenko -
Sophie Traub
Lori Cranston -
Arija Bareikis
Marsha -
Alexis Dziena
Maria -
Michael Kelly
Gary
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All Critics (14) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (9)
Crowe's lumbering presence is a relief from all the gothic heaviness, but director John Polson's elliptical storytelling style quickly becomes an irritant.
Top CriticA movie undone by its formulaic plot conventions, and its need to give its star more screen time than his characters merits.
Crowe, who spends the movie trudging along ... and waxing lyrical about pain and pleasure, must be hoping no one sees this mawkish blunder. He will probably get his wish.
An arty psychological thriller that never catches fire as either a serial killer flick or character study.
Russell Crowe stumbles through lifeless thriller.
The picture is crowded with captivating tones and contemplation, navigating a tricky tale of murder, perversion, and obsession with a fine edge of suspense and an interesting take on the human condition.
Polson maintains an unsettling tension throughout the narrative, building his slow-burn thriller to a climax that deliberately runs counter to the in-your-face genre principles of which he proved such a master with his first two thriller outings.
Since moving to Hollywood, Australian director John Polson has become a very competent filmmaker. I hope he finds better scripts for his future projects.
It's hard to understand what keeps these characters moving, and without true indie grit or the runaway tension that would otherwise satisfy the multiplex, Tenderness drops somewhere in-between...and that is mostly a disappointing nowhere.
Cormier himself called Tenderness a tough book written in "a minor key" and perhaps Polson was inspired by the description. But if so, he doesn't come close.
It does have a few plot contrivances, but the tension is skilfully built and the cast is uniformly excellent.
This is a fascinating study, but the adaptation struggles to get the story across with as much punch as it might. On the other hand, John Polson shows a lucid eye for the genre
The mood that Polson creates is a little like walking into a thick mist and finding yourself lost in the fog. Perhaps we get a little too lost within, but much of the film is engrossing, as are the performances
Audience Reviews for Tenderness
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Lt. Cristofuoro: My wife says there are two kinds of people, those chasing pleasure and those running from pain.
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- Lori Cranston: Nothing changes! Nothing changes!
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- Lori Cranston: You're just a small beans cop with a vegetable wife.
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- Lt. Cristofuoro: He's addicted to the intimacy of the kill, the tenderness.
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- Lori Cranston: I mean, I'm not all Susie-Creamcheese, or whatever.
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- Lt. Cristofuoro: You're a psychopathic, Eric. You know it and I know it. You're going to kill again. And I want to prevent that from happening.
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